Personality and subjective age among older adults: the mediating role of age-group identification.

OBJECTIVE

A small body of research has highlighted the role of the five-factor model personality traits in subjective age. However, no study has yet focused on the mechanisms through which personality could be related to subjective age among older adults. The purpose of the present study was to examine the mediating role of age-group identification in relation between personality traits and subjective age. It was hypothesized that both extraversion and openness to experience are positively related to a younger subjective age through the mediation of their negative relationship with age-group identification.

METHOD

A cross-sectional study was conducted with 501 older individuals aged from 60 to 95 years who completed measures of sociodemographic variables, self-rated health, personality, subjective age, and age-group identification.

RESULTS

Multiple regression analysis revealed that openness to experience was positively related to subjective age through the complete mediation of age-group identification, whereas no support was found for the relationship between extraversion and subjective age.

CONCLUSION

This study fills a gap in the existing literature and reveals that openness to experience is related to a youthful subjective age, because older open individuals tend to distance themselves from their age group. Therefore, this study confirms that personality deserves attention as a predictor of subjective age, independently of sociodemographic and health-related variables.