For the elderly, feeling of control related to feeling younger

A recent study reveals that older people feel younger when they feel they have more control over their daily lives, regardless of stress or health issues. However, stress and health – not a sense of control – play an important role in the age perception of young adults.

"We have recently discovered that older people can improve their sense of control on a daily basis," says Shevaun Neupert, a professor of psychology at North Carolina State University and co-author of an article on work. "Now, this study shows how these feelings of control influence age perceptions: the older people think they have the control they have, the younger they feel."

For this study, researchers asked 116 older adults (aged 60 to 90) and 107 younger adults (aged 18 to 36) to complete a daily survey for eight consecutive days. The study participants were asked questions to badess their daily stress, their physical health, their sense of control over their daily lives and their age.

"The sense of control of everyone varies from one day to another, or even during a day – it is normal," says Neupert. "We found that when older adults felt more in control, they also felt younger.This was true even taking into account stress and physical health."

However, the feeling of control of an individual had no impact on the perception of his age by young adults. But stress and adverse health changes have made young people feel older.

"This highlights the importance of keeping a certain sense of autonomy in the elderly," Neupert said. "It's not just a good thing to do, it affects their well-being."

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The document, "Feel young and mastered: daily control beliefs are badociated with younger subjective ages", is published in the Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences. Jennifer Bellingtier, a former doctoral student at NC State who is now a postdoctoral fellow at Friedrich Schiller University Jena. The work was done with the support of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences of NC State.

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