Awareness of age-related change in very different cultural-political contexts: a cross-cultural examination of aging in Burkina Faso and Germany

Combining recent developments in research on personal views on aging (VoA) and a cross-country comparative approach, this study examined awareness of age-related change (AARC) in samples from rural Burkina Faso and Germany. The aims of this study were (1) to examine for an assumed proportional shift...

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Hauptverfasser: Schönstein, Anton (Verfasst von) , Schlomann, Anna (Verfasst von) , Wahl, Hans-Werner (Verfasst von) , Bärnighausen, Till (Verfasst von)
Dokumenttyp: Article (Journal)
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: 2022
In: Frontiers in psychiatry
Year: 2022, Jahrgang: 13, Pages: 1-11
ISSN:1664-0640
DOI:10.3389/fpsyt.2022.928564
Online-Zugang:Resolving-System, kostenfrei, Volltext: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.928564
Verlag, kostenfrei, Volltext: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.928564
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Verfasserangaben:Anton Schönstein, Anna Schlomann, Hans-Werner Wahl and Till Bärnighausen
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Zusammenfassung:Combining recent developments in research on personal views on aging (VoA) and a cross-country comparative approach, this study examined awareness of age-related change (AARC) in samples from rural Burkina Faso and Germany. The aims of this study were (1) to examine for an assumed proportional shift in the relationship between gains/losses toward more losses as predicted by life span psychology; (2) to estimate the association between AARC dimensions and subjective age; and (3) to examine the association between health variables and AARC. A cross-sectional method involving a large, representative sample from rural Burkina Faso that included participants aged 40 and older (N = 3,028) and a smaller convenience sample of German respondents aged 50 years and older (N = 541) were used to address these questions. A proportional shift toward more AARC-losses was more clearly observable in the sample from Burkina Faso as compared to the German reference. In both samples, subjective age was consistently more strongly related to AARC-losses than to AARC-gains. Within the sample from Burkina Faso, differential associations of AARC-gains and AARC-losses to health variables could be shown. In conclusion, the findings support key tenets of life span psychology including that age-related gains occur even late in life and that a shift toward more losses occurs with increasing age. Also, feeling subjectively younger may indeed be more strongly guided by lowered negative aging experiences than by increased positive ones.
Beschreibung:Online veröffentlicht: 20. Januar 2023
Gesehen am 03.02.2023
Beschreibung:Online Resource
ISSN:1664-0640
DOI:10.3389/fpsyt.2022.928564