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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Subjective age perceptions in the UK
— an empirical study | | Author(s) | Lynn Sudbury |
| Journal title | Quality in Ageing, vol 5, no 1, June 2004 |
| Pages | pp 4-13 |
| Source | www.pavpub.com |
| Keywords | Ageing process ; Health [elderly] ; Mental ageing ; Attitude ; Social surveys. |
| Annotation | The number of years lived is a poor indicator of a person's self-perceptions, attitudes and behaviours. For these reasons, gerontologists have looked for alternative measures of age, including self-perceived or subjective age. While American researchers have built up a body of knowledge pertaining to self-perceived age for more than half a century, little is known about the concept in the UK. This paper presents the findings of an empirical study into the self-perceived age of a group of 356 UK citizens aged 50-79 (mean age 60.2). Using the cognitive age scale, respondents were asked how old they perceived themselves to be on the dimensions of feel, look, act and interests. Overall, respondents indicated a self-perceived age of more than 10 years younger than chronological age. These results suggest that the phenomenon is at least as extensive in the US, where it is frequently argued that youth is valued over age. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-040720213 A |
| Classmark | BG: CC: D6: DP: 3F |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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