We first tested a successful aging model, which included biomedical and psychosocial indicators. Next, we tested the assumptions on the social network characteristics of the socioemotional selectivity theory in a model where the outcome variable is successful aging.

Cross-sectional study.

The study was carried out in municipal centers and nursing homes.

A total of 478 adults (Mean age = 72.11, SD = 10.43) were enrolled.

Psychological Well-being Scale, Life Satisfaction Scale, Future Time Perspective, Katz Index of Independence in Activities of Daily Living Scale, Lawton Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Scale, and Mini-Mental State Examination Test were completed.

The structural equation modeling analyses indicated that higher social satisfaction mediated the association of the future time perspective with successful aging. Furthermore, there was another significant indirect sequential path from the future time perspective to successful aging. The path was first via the number of close social partners and second, social satisfaction.

The findings highlight the importance of social satisfaction in the process of successful aging and provide novel evidence that the socioemotional selectivity theory can be considered as a biopsychosocial model of successful aging in future studies.

Perceived purpose in life (PIL) has been linked to a broad range of adverse physical, mental, and cognitive outcomes. However, limited research has examined factors associated with PIL that can be targeted in prevention and treatment efforts in aging populations at heightened risk of adverse outcomes. Using data from predominantly older US veterans, we sought to identify important correlates of PIL.

Cross-sectional data were analyzed from the 2019–2020 National Health and Resilience in Veterans Study, which surveyed a nationally representative sample of 4069 US military veterans (Mage = 62.2). Elastic net and relative importance analyses were conducted to evaluate sociodemographic, military, health, and psychosocial variables that were strongly associated with PIL.

Of the 39 variables entered into an elastic net analysis, 10 were identified as significant correlates of PIL. In order of magnitude, these were resilience (18.7% relative variance explained [RVE]), optimism (12.1%), depressive symptoms (11.3%), community integration (10.7%), gratitude (10.2%), loneliness (9.8%), received social support (8.6%), conscientiousness (8.5%), openness to experience (5.4%), and intrinsic religiosity (4.7%).

Several modifiable psychosocial factors emerged as significant correlates of PIL in US military veterans. Interventions designed to target these factors may help increase PIL and mitigate risk for adverse health outcomes in this population.

Studies have shown that when people grow older, the negative perceptions about age(ing) become self-directed. In this study, we examined if and how this assertion is expressed in the self-presentation of older adults.

To explore this issue, we undertook an online survey with 818 Israeli older adults (aged 65–90) who were asked to present themselves in writing, using an open question and to choose the age terms that they preferred, relying on a multiple-choice question. Responses were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively using “word cloud” and linguistic inquiry.

The analysis indicated three ways of coping with the issue of age in one’s self-presentation: Absence of old age – older people who blur their processes of aging; Camouflaged aging – older people who emphasize their age by using a line of self-ageism; Multiplicity of old age terms – the existing gap between what is being used by people and the ideal related to the use of existing age terms. The findings highlight the role of subjective age in one’s self-presentations.

The results point to the ambivalence that older people feel in relation to their age(ing) and especially reflect the paradox of subjective age. That is, on the one hand studies have stressed the positive aspects of this practice, whereas on the other hand, subjective age possibly reflects a response to internalized negative stereotypes and prejudice about old age(ing). In this sense, this study expands the knowledge in the field of self-presentation and (subjective) age in the second half of life.

To examine the bidirectional associations between older adult spouses’ cognitive functioning and depressive symptoms over time and replicate previous findings from the United States (US) in Mexico.

Longitudinal, dyadic path analysis with the actor-partner interdependence model.

Data were from the three most recent interview waves (2012, 2015, and 2018) of the Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS), a longitudinal national study of adults aged 50+ years in Mexico.

Husbands and wives from 905 community-dwelling married couples (N = 1,810).

The MHAS cognitive battery measured cognitive function. Depressive symptoms were assessed using a modified nine-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. Baseline covariates included age, education, number of children, limitation with any activity of daily living, limitation with any instrumental activity of daily living, and pain.

As hypothesized, there were significant within-individual associations in which one person’s own cognitive functioning and own depressive symptoms predicted their own follow-up cognitive functioning and depressive symptoms, respectively. In addition, a person’s own cognitive functioning predicted their own depressive symptoms, and a person’s own depressive symptoms predicted their own cognitive functioning over time. As hypothesized, there was a significant partner association such that one person’s depressive symptoms predicted more depressive symptoms in the partner.

Findings from this study of older Mexican couples replicates findings from studies of older couples in the US, showing that depressive symptoms in one partner predict depressive symptoms in the other partner over time; however, there was no evidence for cognition–depression partner associations over time.