Department of Sociology, Florida State University, Tallahassee.
Department of Sociology, University of South Florida, Tampa.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2018 Oct 10;73(8):e154-e164. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbx027.
Dominant views of aging generate anxiety for many adults-especially women, who face greater disadvantages in later life compared with men. However, little is known about changes in these concerns over time and their variation across women. Employing a feminist perspective on age relations, our study examines three social contexts affecting women's aging anxiety-social location, health, and social relationships.
Using a sample of women (n = 905) from Midlife in the United States (1995-1996; 2004-2006), logistic regression models examine predictors of over-time patterns in three aging anxiety sources-declining attractiveness, declining health, and reproductive aging.
Women report more declining-health anxiety, and it remains more stable over time than do declining-attractiveness and reproductive aging anxiety-both of which tend to decrease with age. The effects of social context vary across anxiety sources; however, more favorable over-time patterns are often associated with more disadvantaged social locations (i.e., older ages, non-white, lower socioeconomic status)-but better health and social relationships.
Our study, the first to examine over-time patterns in aging anxiety, illustrates women's multiple "old ages"-a reality manifesting in not only objective conditions of later life but also perceptions of aging. It provides insight on social and cultural processes shaping aging perceptions.
主流的衰老观念会给许多成年人带来焦虑，尤其是女性，她们在晚年面临着比男性更大的劣势。然而，人们对这些担忧随时间的变化以及在女性中的变化知之甚少。本研究从年龄关系的女性主义视角出发，考察了影响女性衰老焦虑的三个社会背景：社会地位、健康和社会关系。
我们使用了来自美国中年人的样本（1995-1996 年；2004-2006 年；n=905），逻辑回归模型检验了三种衰老焦虑源（吸引力下降、健康状况下降和生殖衰老）随时间变化的预测因素。
女性报告的健康状况下降焦虑感更多，而且随着时间的推移，这种焦虑感更稳定，而吸引力下降和生殖衰老焦虑感则往往随着年龄的增长而下降。社会背景的影响因焦虑源而异；然而，更有利的随时间变化的模式往往与更不利的社会地位（即年龄较大、非白种人、较低的社会经济地位）相关，但与更好的健康和社会关系相关。
我们的研究首次考察了衰老焦虑的随时间变化模式，说明了女性的多种“老年”——这不仅表现在晚年的客观条件上，也表现在对衰老的认知上。它提供了关于塑造衰老认知的社会和文化过程的见解。
