Abstract
Is it possible to maintain a positive perspective on the self into very old age? Empirical research so far is rather inconclusive, with some studies reporting substantial declines in self-esteem late in life, whereas others report relative stability into old age. In this article, we examine long-term change trajectories in self-esteem in old age and very old age and link them to key correlates in the health, cognitive, self-regulatory, and social domains. To do so, we estimated growth curve models over chronological age and time-to-death using 18-year longitudinal data from the Australian Longitudinal Study of Ageing (N 1,215; age 65-103 years at first occasion; M 78.8 years, SD 5.9; women: 45% of sample). Results revealed that self-esteem was, on average, fairly stable with minor declines only emerging in advanced ages and at the very end of life. Examination of the vast between-person differences revealed that lower cognitive abilities and lower perceived control independently related to lower self-esteem. Also, lower cognitive abilities were associated with steeper age-related and mortality-related self-esteem decrements. In our discussion, we consider a variety of challenges that potentially shape self-esteem late in life and highlight the need for more mechanism-oriented research to better understand the pathways underlying stability and change in self-esteem.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 139-153 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | Journal of Personality and Social Psychology |
Volume | 105 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jul 2013 |
Keywords
- Adulthood
- Age-related and mortality-related
- Longitudinal data
- Self-esteem trajectories