Background and Objectives: This systematic review aimed to synthesize and quantify the associations of awareness of age-related change (AARC) with emotional well-being, physical well-being, and cognitive functioning. Research Design and Methods: We conducted a systematic review with a correlational random effects meta-analysis. We included quantitative studies, published from January 1, 2009 to October 3, 2018, exploring associations between AARC and one or more of the following outcomes: emotional well-being, physical well-being, and cognitive functioning. We assessed heterogeneity (I2) and publication bias. Results: We included 12 studies in the review, 9 exploring the association between AARC and emotional well-being and 11 exploring the association between AARC and physical well-being. No study explored the association between AARC and cognitive functioning. Six articles were included in the meta-analysis. We found a moderate association between a higher level of AARC gains and better emotional well-being (r = .33; 95% CI 0.18, 0.47; p <.001; I2 = 76.01) and between a higher level of AARC losses and poorer emotional (r = −.31; 95% CI −0.38, −0.24; p < .001; I2 = 0.00) and physical well-being (r = −.38; 95% CI −0.51, −0.24; p < .001; I2 = 83.48). We found a negligible association between AARC gains and physical well-being (r = .08; 95% CI 0.02, 0.14; p < .122; I2 = 0.00). Studies were of medium to high methodological quality. Discussion and Implications: There is some indication that AARC gains and losses can play a role in emotional well-being and that AARC losses are associated with physical well-being. However, the number of included studies is limited and there was some indication of heterogeneity. PROSPERO Registration: CRD42018111472.

Research related to subjective aging, which describes how individuals perceive, interpret, and evaluate their own aging, has substantially grown in the past 2 decades. Evidence from longitudinal studies shows that subjective aging predicts health, quality of life, and functioning in later life. However, the existing literature on successful aging has mostly neglected the role of subjective aging. This paper proposes an extended framework of successful aging linking subjective aging conceptually and empirically to Rowe and Kahn’s ((1997). Successful aging. Gerontologist, 37(4), 433–440) 3 original key criteria of successful aging (i.e., avoiding disease and disability, maintaining high cognitive and physical function, and engagement with life). A particular focus is placed on subjective aging as an antecedent of successful aging. A review of the empirical subjective aging literature shows that subjective aging concepts consistently predict all 3 of Rowe and Kahn’s criteria of successful aging. Mechanisms underlying these relations are discussed at 3 levels, namely psychological, behavioral, and physiological pathways. The proposed addition also takes into consideration the interconnections between subjective aging and successful aging throughout the life span and across historical time. Finally, we discuss the importance of facilitating successful aging through systematic interventions that support more positive views of aging at the individual and societal levels.

Background: A questionnaire assessing awareness of positive and negative age-related changes (AARC gains and losses) was developed in the US and Germany. We validated the short form of the measure (AARC-10 SF) and the cognitive functioning subscale from the 50-item version of the AARC (AARC-50) questionnaire in the UK population aged 50 and over.Methods: Data from 9410 participants (Mean (SD) age = 65.9 (7.1)) in the PROTECT cohort were used to explore and confirm the psychometric properties of the AARC measures including: validity of the factor structure; reliability; measurement invariance across men and women, individuals with and without a university degree, and in middle age, early old age, and advanced old age; and convergent validity with measures of self-perception of aging and mental, physical, and cognitive health. We explored the relationship between demographic variables (age, sex, marital status, employment, and university education) and AARC.Results: We confirmed the two-factor structure (gains and losses) of the AARC-10 SF and the AARC-50 cognitive functioning subscale. Both scales showed good reliability and good convergent validity for AARC losses, but weak convergent validity for AARC gains. For both scales metric invariance was held for the two subgroups defined by education level and age. For the AARC-50 subscale, but not for the AARC-10 SF, strong invariance was also held for the two subgroups defined by sex. Age, sex, marital status, employment, and university education predicted AARC gains and losses.Conclusions: The AARC-10 SF and AARC-50 cognitive functioning subscale identify UK individuals who perceive age-related changes in their mental, physical, and cognitive health.

Research exploring whether health predicts self-perceptions of aging (SPA) has mostly focused on single predictors and has been hampered by short observational intervals. We examined whether 20-year changes in cognitive functioning, physical and mental health predict SPA. We used data of 103 German participants who remained of a sample of 500 participants born in 1930-1932 enrolled in the Interdisciplinary Longitudinal Study of Adult Development (ILSE) in 1993/1996 (mean age at fourth measurement wave = 82.5 years). Health indicators included six cognitive tests, objective and subjective physical health, and self-reported depression. We used a new and multidimensional (awareness of age-related gains and losses) and a well-established (attitudes toward own aging) measure of SPA. Linear regression analyses showed that, among the cognitive tests, decline in information processing speed (Digit Symbol) predicted less awareness of age-related gains and more awareness of age-related losses but not attitudes toward own aging. Decline in subjective but not objective physical health, predicted more awareness of age-related losses and negative attitudes toward own aging, but not awareness of age-related gains. Increase in depressive symptoms predicted more awareness of age-related losses and negative attitudes toward own aging, but not awareness of age-related gains. The size of associations suggests that objective cognitive decline has limited influence on older adults' SPA and, if so, only when the decline is related to mental slowing. Similarly, perceived physical and mental health, but not objective health, have a small-to-moderate influence on awareness of age-related losses and attitudes toward own aging. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Objectives: Evidence linking subjective concerns about cognition with poorer objective cognitive performance is limited by reliance on unidimensional measures of self-perceptions of aging (SPA). We used the awareness of age-related change (AARC) construct to assess self-perception of both positive and negative age-related changes (AARC gains and losses). We tested whether AARC has greater utility in linking self-perceptions to objective cognition compared to well-established measures of self-perceptions of cognition and aging. We examined the associations of AARC with objective cognition, several psychological variables, and engagement in cognitive training. Design: Cross-sectional observational study. Participants: The sample comprised 6056 cognitively healthy participants (mean [SD] age = 66.0 [7.0] years); divided into subgroups representing middle, early old, and advanced old age. Measurements: We used an online cognitive battery and measures of global AARC, AARC specific to the cognitive domain, subjective cognitive change, attitudes toward own aging (ATOA), subjective age (SA), depression, anxiety, self-rated health (SRH). Results: Scores on the AARC measures showed stronger associations with objective cognition compared to other measures of self-perceptions of cognition and aging. Higher AARC gains were associated with poorer cognition in middle and early old age. Higher AARC losses and poorer cognition were associated across all subgroups. Higher AARC losses were associated with greater depression and anxiety, more negative SPA, poorer SRH, but not with engagement in cognitive training. Conclusions: Assessing both positive and negative self-perceptions of cognition and aging is important when linking self-perceptions to cognitive functioning. Objective cognition is one of the many variables – alongside psychological variables – related to perceived cognitive losses.

Research studies exploring the association of cognitive complaints with objectively assessed cognitive decline report inconsistent results. However, many of these have methodological limitations. We investigated whether 1) more severe subjective cognitive decline (SCD) and subjective memory decline (SMD) predict change in objectively assessed global cognition, remote memory, recent memory, learning; 2) the predictive value of more severe SMD over change in objectively assessed remote memory, recent memory, and learning is stronger for individuals that report an SMD that started within the past five years than for those that report an SMD that started five or more years previously and/or stronger for those that experienced SMD within the past two years than for those who had not; and 3) greater depression and anxiety are associated with more severe SCD and SMD. We used two-year longitudinal data from the CFAS-Wales study (N = 1,531; mean (SD) age = 73.0 (6.0) years). We fitted linear regression models. More severe SCD and SMD did not predict change in objectively assessed global cognition, remote memory, and recent memory but predicted lower scores in learning. The prediction of SMD over change in learning was not stronger when individuals reported an SMD that started within the past five years compared to when they reported an SMD that started five or more years previously nor when individuals reported an SMD that started within the past two years than those who did not. Greater depression and anxiety were associated with more severe SCD and SMD. More severe SMD may be useful for predicting lower learning ability and for identifying individuals experiencing depression and anxiety.