Xie Donghong, Wang Jiwen, Huang Fan
Institute of Governance, Shandong University, Qingdao, China.
Research Center for Rural Economy, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Beijing, China.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2023 Feb 19;78(2):230-241. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbac160.
Age stereotypes and expectations about one's own aging commence in childhood, while most research focuses on predictive associations with midlife cognition and health outcomes in later life. This study instead aims to examine adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) contributing to multiple measures of subjective age (SA) among Chinese older adults and test whether these relationships differ by household registration (hukou).
In a representative sample of Chinese older adults aged 60 and older from the 2018 China Longitudinal Aging and Social Survey (n = 7,815), ordinary least squares is used to examine the associations between ACEs and 3 facets of SA: felt age, look age, and self-defined aging standard.
Childhood starvation experience and limited health care access predict older felt age and look age, while parental death is associated with lower self-defined aging standard. Zooming in on hukou-specific associations shows that the dose-response relationship on older adults with rural hukou is particularly pronounced.
Findings provide empirical support for views of aging from a life-course perspective and highlight the enduring impact of ACEs for late-adulthood SA, as well as their differential influence on multiple indicators of SA. Interventions that focus on promoting health and development in childhood could potentially have effects beyond the childhood phase, and benefit for their positive aging attitude in later life.
年龄刻板印象以及对自身衰老的预期始于童年时期，而大多数研究聚焦于与中年认知及晚年健康结果的预测性关联。本研究旨在探讨导致中国老年人主观年龄（SA）多项指标的童年不良经历（ACEs），并检验这些关系是否因户籍而有所不同。
在2018年中国老年纵向社会调查中选取的60岁及以上中国老年人代表性样本（n = 7815）中，采用普通最小二乘法来检验ACEs与SA的三个方面之间的关联：感知年龄、外表年龄和自我定义的衰老标准。
童年饥饿经历和有限的医疗保健可及性预示着老年人更高的感知年龄和外表年龄，而父母死亡与较低的自我定义衰老标准相关。深入研究特定户籍的关联表明，农村户籍老年人的剂量反应关系尤为明显。
研究结果为从生命历程角度看待衰老提供了实证支持，并突出了ACEs对成年晚期SA的持久影响，以及它们对SA多个指标的差异影响。专注于促进儿童期健康与发展的干预措施可能会产生超越儿童期阶段的效果，并有利于其晚年形成积极的衰老态度。
