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The study is one of the first to investigate how younger adults perceive and anticipate their own aging. Findings are published online in the journal Ageing and Society.
Using data from a telephone survey of over 1600 adults aged 18 to 64 years, the authors also found that one-third would prefer a life expectancy in the eighties, or about equal to average life expectancy, and approximately one-quarter would prefer to live into their nineties, somewhat longer than average life expectancy. The remaining participants said they hope to live to 100 or more years. Participants were on average 42 years old, half were women and 33 per cent were university graduates.
"We were particularly interested in whether how long people want to live would be related to their expectations about what their life in old age will be like," said Dr. Skirbekk, a professor of Population and Family Health at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.
The results, which were controlled for overall happiness, confirmed that having fewer positive old age expectations was associated with the preference to die before reaching average life expectancy. On the contrary, having fewer negative old expectations was associated with the preference to live either somewhat longer or much longer than average life expectancy.
"Having rather bleak expectations of what life will be like in old age seems to undermine the desire to live up to and beyond current levels of average life expectancy," said first author Catherine Bowen, PhD and expert on mental representations of old age and the aging process. "People who embrace the ‘better to die young’ attitude may underestimate their ability to cope with negative age-related life experiences as well as to find new sources of well-being in old age."
To read the full article, click on the link below.
Category(s):Health / Illness / Medical Issues, Health Psychology, Life Purpose / Meaning / Inner-Guidance
Source material from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health
