Bergman Yoav S, Shrira Amit, Swisa Orel, Weissberger Gali H
Faculty of Social Work, Ashkelon Academic College, Ashkelon, Israel.
Department of Social and Health Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel.
Aging Ment Health. 2025 Feb;29(2):247-255. doi: 10.1080/13607863.2024.2382798. Epub 2024 Jul 29.
Social relationships are associated with various positive physical, psychological, and emotional outcomes in older adults. In line with the growing understanding of the role of subjective views of aging (VoA) for older adults' quality of life, the current work examines how daily fluctuations in VoA affect social relationships. Moreover, as the ability to mentalize others' states of mind (i.e. Theory of Mind) considerably enhances such relationships, this study assesses whether mentalization abilities mediate the VoA-social relationships link.
Eighty-two Israeli older adults (mean age = 73.44, = 8.64, range = 60-95) completed a baseline online questionnaire containing background information, and subsequently filled out daily online questionnaires assessing ageist attitudes, subjective age, mentalization abilities, and positive social relationships for 14 consecutive days.
Positive VoA (reduced ageist attitudes and/or a young subjective age) were associated with enhanced mentalization and positive relationships on a given day and in time-lagged analyses. Moreover, mentalization mediated the effect of previous-day VoA on next-day positive social relationships. VoA also mediated the effect of previous-day mentalization on next-day positive social relationships.
The study highlights the importance of mentalization capabilities for maintaining positive VoA/social relationships and expands the understanding of underlying factors associated with meaningful and close relationships in older adults.
社会关系与老年人身体、心理和情绪方面的各种积极结果相关。随着对衰老主观观念（VoA）在老年人生活质量中作用的认识不断加深，当前研究考察了VoA的日常波动如何影响社会关系。此外，由于理解他人心理状态的能力（即心理理论）能显著增进此类关系，本研究评估了心理化能力是否在VoA与社会关系之间起中介作用。
82名以色列老年人（平均年龄 = 73.44，标准差 = 8.64，年龄范围 = 60 - 95岁）完成了一份包含背景信息的基线在线问卷，随后连续14天每天填写在线问卷，评估年龄歧视态度、主观年龄、心理化能力和积极的社会关系。
在给定日期和滞后分析中，积极的VoA（减少年龄歧视态度和/或年轻的主观年龄）与增强的心理化和积极关系相关。此外，心理化在先前一天的VoA对次日积极社会关系的影响中起中介作用。VoA在先前一天的心理化对次日积极社会关系的影响中也起中介作用。
该研究强调了心理化能力对于维持积极的VoA/社会关系的重要性，并扩展了对与老年人有意义和亲密关系相关潜在因素的理解。
