Maintaining a young self-concept: Feeling young or shifting age thresholds?

Abstract

In the face of prevailing negative views on old age, aging individuals try to maintain the self-concept of a young person. They may do so by feeling younger than they are or by shifting the threshold of old age. According to the dual-process theory of developmental regulation, the former represents an assimilative coping process, whereas the latter represents an accommodative coping process. In the present work, we investigated the usage of those two processes across various life domains (e.g., family, work, and leisure). We hypothesized that individuals try to maintain a young self-concept particularly in those domains they view as important for themselves. We furthermore expected older adults to rely more strongly on shifting the threshold of old age in personally important domains (= accommodative response) and younger adults to rely more strongly on feeling young in personally important domains (= assimilative response). We investigated these hypotheses in a cross-sectional sample of 768 individuals aged 30 to 80 years. Analyses were conducted in a multilevel framework with the life domains nested within individuals. Our hypotheses were confirmed. Participants protected a young self-concept selectively in domains that were important to them. Younger adults felt particularly young in self-relevant domains, whereas older adults selectively chose higher old age thresholds in self-relevant domains. Both processes may allow individuals to protect their self-concept and to dissociate themselves from the stigmatized identity of an old person. Results also shed light on the idealization of being young in our society.