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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Time since birth and time left to live
— opposing forces in constructing psychological wellbeing | | Author(s) | Bercu Demiray, Susan Bluck |
| Journal title | Ageing and Society, vol 34, no 7, August 2014 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press, August 2014 |
| Pages | pp 1193-1218 |
| Source | journals.cambridge.org/aso |
| Keywords | Well being ; Young adults [20-25] ; Middle aged ; Attitude ; Life span ; Comparison ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | By definition, ageing involves moving across lived time. This American study is grounded in developmental psychology, particularly lifespan developmental theory. It examines two time-related factors that may affect psychological well-being in adulthood: chronological age and perceived time left to live (i.e. future time perspective). These factors are predicted to act as opposing forces in the construction of psychological well-being. 285 young adults (aged 19-29 years) and 135 middle-aged adults (aged 47-64 years) self-reported their current psychological well-being (across six dimensions) and their sense of future time perspective. As predicted, mediation analyses show that higher levels of chronological age (being in midlife), and having a more open-ended, positive future time perspective are both related to higher psychological well-being. Note, however, that being in midlife is related to a more limited and negative future time perspective. While both age and future perspective are measures of time in a general sense, analyses show that they act as unique, opposing forces in the construction of psychological well-being - confirming the authors' conceptual argument. The current research suggests that individuals can optimise psychological well-being to the extent that they maintain an open-ended and positive sense of the future. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-150602005 A |
| Classmark | D:F:5HH: SD6: SE: DP: BG6: 48: 7T |
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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