Age Identity and Subjective Well-Being: A Comparison of the United States and Germany
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: This article investigates the theoretical and empirical relationship between age identity and subjective well-being (SWB) in a cross-national context. Feeling younger than one's actual age is considered a self-enhancing illusion that contributes to SWB even beyond factors predicting age identities and SWB, such as health and socioeconomic status. As the United States is more youth oriented than Germany, age identities are expected to be more adaptive for American adults. METHODS: Data are from respondents between 40 and 74 years of age who participated in the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (N = 2,006) or the German Aging Survey (N = 3,331). RESULT: Analyses using the pooled sample reveal that feeling younger than one's actual age is related to higher levels of life satisfaction and positive affect and to lower levels of negative affect, even when controlling for sociodemographic variables. Country-specific analyses indicate that the relationship between age identity and negative affect holds only for the United States. DISCUSSION: Age identities play a role in more varied aspects of psychosocial adaptation in the United States than in Germany. It is concluded that the cultural context needs to be included more explicitly in gerontological theories and research.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Germany's political regime makes later life well-being more a concern of the state.
“Germany's political regime makes later life well-being more a concern of the state.”
From Centering Age Inequality: Developing a Sociology-of-Age Framework (2022) · cites this paper as Westerhof & Barrett 2005
People in the United States hold more youthful identities and greater health benefits accrue from them, compared with those in Germany.
“The authors reported that people in the United States hold more youthful identities and greater health benefits accrue from them, compared with those in Germany.”
From Centering Age Inequality: Developing a Sociology-of-Age Framework (2022) · cites this paper as Westerhof & Barrett 2005
The liberal welfare state regime in the United States places more responsibility on individuals to plan for their later years.
“They argued that the liberal welfare state regime in the United States places more responsibility on individuals to plan for their later years-perhaps increasing the pressure to exaggerate one's youthfulness.”
From Centering Age Inequality: Developing a Sociology-of-Age Framework (2022) · cites this paper as Westerhof & Barrett 2005
Germany's mandatory retirement age may make it more difficult to disregard actual age than in the United States.
“In addition, Germany's mandatory retirement age may make it more difficult to disregard actual age than in the United States, where most occupations have no such requirement.”
From Centering Age Inequality: Developing a Sociology-of-Age Framework (2022) · cites this paper as Westerhof & Barrett 2005
Cites
Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales.
Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.54.6.1063 · Cited by 32,433 · see citing works
Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation.
Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (1991) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/0033-295x.98.2.224 · Cited by 21,995 · see citing works
Subjective well-being: Three decades of progress.
Diener, E., Suh, E. M., Lucas, R. E., & Smith, H. L. (1999) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.125.2.276 · Cited by 12,910 · see citing works
Illusion and well‐being: A social psychological perspective on mental health
Taylor, S. E., & Brown, J. D. (1988) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.103.2.193 · Cited by 7,814 · see citing works
Review of the Satisfaction With Life Scale.
Pavot, W., & Diener, E. (1993) · Psychological Assessment · doi:10.1037/1040-3590.5.2.164 · Cited by 3,611 · see citing works
Longevity increased by positive self-perceptions of aging
Levy, B. R., Slade, M. D., Kunkel, S. R., & Kasl, S. V. (2002) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.83.2.261 · Cited by 1,508 · see citing works
The Costly Pursuit of Self-Esteem
Crocker, J., & Park, L. E. (2004) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.130.3.392 · Cited by 1,402 · see citing works
Gender Differences in Self-Concept and Psychological Well-Being in Old Age: A Meta-Analysis
Pinquart, M., & Sorensen, S. (2001) · The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences · doi:10.1093/geronb/56.4.p195 · Cited by 646 · cited 2× · see citing works
“Moreover, age identity is argued to be influenced, in part, by one’s gender (Pinquart & Sörensen, 2001) and one’s socioeconomic status and health (Barrett, 2003; Westerhof et al., 2003).”
BackgroundPsychological predictors of mortality in old age
Maier, H., & Smith, J. (1999) · The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences · doi:10.1093/geronb/54b.1.p44 · Cited by 291 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
The influence of subjective aging on health and longevity: a meta-analysis of longitudinal data
Westerhof, G. J., Miche, M., Brothers, A. F., Barrett, A. E., Diehl, M., Montepare, J. M., Wahl, H.-W., & Wurm, S. (2014) · Psychology and Aging · doi:10.1037/a0038016 · Cited by 403 · see citing works
Self-citationKotter-Grühn, D., Kleinspehn-Ammerlahn, A., Gerstorf, D., & Smith, J. (2009) · Psychology and Aging · doi:10.1037/a0016510 · Cited by 347 · see citing works
Centering Age Inequality: Developing a Sociology-of-Age Framework
Barrett, A. E. (2022) · Annual Review of Sociology · doi:10.1146/annurev-soc-083121-043741 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
Self-citation
- Authors
- Westerhof, G. J., & Barrett, A. E.
- Affiliations
- Radboud University Nijmegen (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Westerhof, G. J.
- Venue
- The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2005-05-01
- Volume
- 60
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- S129-S136
- ISSN
- 1079-5014 (ISSN-L)
- 1758-5368
- OpenAlex
- W2161538367
- Cited by
- 355
- References
- 9
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 46 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 19 · 2020: 18 · 2019: 17 · 2018: 18 · 2017: 23 · 2016: 24 · 2015: 25 · 2014: 21 · 2013: 18 · 2012: 18
- FWCI
- 10.04
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- The Journals of Gerontology Series B (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Radboud Repository (Radboud University) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
- Freie Universität Berlin
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology › Aging and Gerontology Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Aging, Health, and Disability
- Keywords
- age identity, subjective well-being, life satisfaction, positive affect, negative affect, cross-national comparison, United States, Germany, cultural context, middle-aged adults, older adults, psychosocial adjustment
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aged, Aging, Attitude to Health, Cross-Cultural Comparison, Cultural Characteristics, Female, Germany, Health Status, Humans, Identification, Psychological, Life Style, Male, Middle Aged, Quality of Life, Surveys and Questionnaires, Self Concept, Sex Factors, Socioeconomic Factors, United States
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
