The emerging literature on aging and decision making posits that decision‐making competence changes with age, as a result of age differences in various cognitive and noncognitive ...individual‐differences characteristics. In a national life‐span sample from the United Kingdom (N = 926), we examined age differences in financial decisions, including performance measures of sunk cost and credit card repayment decisions, and self‐report measures of money management and financial decision outcomes. Participants also completed four individual‐differences characteristics that have been proposed as relevant to financial decision making, including two cognitive ones (numeracy and experience‐based knowledge) and two noncognitive ones (negative emotions about financial decisions). First, we examined how age was related to the four financial decision‐making measures and the four individual‐differences characteristics. Older age was correlated to better scores on each of the four financial decision‐making measures, more experience‐based knowledge, less negative emotions about financial decisions, whereas numeracy and motivation were not significantly correlated with age. Second, we found that considering both the two cognitive and the two noncognitive individual‐differences characteristics increased predictions of financial decision making, as compared with considering either alone. Third, we examined how these four individual‐differences characteristics contributed to age differences in financial decision making. Older adults' higher levels of experience‐based knowledge and lower levels of negative emotions seemed to especially benefit their financial decision making. We discuss implications for theories on aging and decision making, as well as for interventions targeting financial decisions.
In March 2020, COVID-19 brought illness, lockdowns, and economic turmoil worldwide. Studies from March-April 2020 reported increased psychological distress, especially among younger (vs. older) ...adults. Here, we examine whether age differences persisted in a 29-wave longitudinal survey conducted with an American national life-span sample over the first 16 months of the pandemic. Socio-emotional selectivity theory (SST) predicts that older age will be consistently associated with lower psychological distress due to life-span changes in motivation, while the strength and vulnerability integration model (SAVI) posits that age differences in psychological distress will diminish under prolonged stress. We find that younger adults consistently reported more psychological distress than older adults, though age differences did decrease over time. Prior diagnosis with anxiety or depression additionally predicted greater psychological distress throughout the study, but did not moderate age differences. We discuss implications for psychological theories of aging and interventions to reduce psychological distress.
We outline a contextual and motivational model of judgment and decision‐making (JDM) biases across the life span. Our model focuses on abilities and skills that correspond to deliberative, ...experiential, and affective decision‐making processes. We review research that addresses links between JDM biases and these processes as represented by individual differences in specific abilities and skills (e.g., fluid and crystallized intelligence, executive functioning, emotion regulation, personality traits). We focus on two JDM biases—the sunk‐cost fallacy (SCF) and the framing effect. We trace the developmental trajectory of each bias from preschool through middle childhood, adolescence, early adulthood, and later adulthood. We conclude that life‐span developmental trajectories differ depending on the bias investigated. Existing research suggests relative stability in the framing effect across the life span and decreases in the SCF with age, including in later life. We highlight directions for future research on JDM biases across the life span, emphasizing the need for process‐oriented research and research that increases our understanding of JDM biases in people's everyday lives.
Objectives
Retirement timing has been linked to a host of outcomes for individuals, families, and societies. The present study predicted retirement timing using profiles of preretirement family ...caregiving and gender.
Method
Using longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study, cluster analysis was used to create profiles of preretirement family caregiving (operationalized as time and financial transfers to aging parents and adult children). These profiles, as well as gender, were used to predict later retirement timing.
Results
Four distinct preretirement caregiving profiles were evident. All profiles retired, on average, earlier than their full eligibility for Social Security benefits. A main effect of caregiving profile, but not gender, was evident. The Eldercare profile, which was characterized by high levels of time and financial transfers to aging parents, retired the earliest. There was not a significant interaction between caregiving profile and gender.
Discussion
When men enacted female-typical caregiving roles, their retirement timing resembled women’s. Eldercare, in particular, was associated with earlier retirement timing. Implications for individual retirement decision-making and policy are discussed.
Financial literacy and financial experience may be important for understanding age differences in financial decisionmaking. Older adults generally have more financial experience than younger adults ...do, and some studies suggest they also have better financial literacy. We investigated associations among age (N = 594, aged 20–88, M
age = 46.48), financial experience, financial literacy, and preferences for receiving larger (versus smaller) amounts of money sooner (versus later). Older age was correlated with preferences for receiving larger amounts of money sooner and smaller amounts later, but this association was no longer significant after accounting for financial experience and financial literacy. Financial experience was the only significant contributor. We discuss implications for improving financial decision-making across adulthood.
Associations between self-sufficiency and advice seeking with mortality risk were examined to assess the long-term implications of individualistic and interpersonally oriented strategies. Wave 1 ...participants from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (N = 6116, 25–75 years, Mage = 46.38 years) completed questionnaires assessing demographics, self-sufficiency, advice seeking, social support, and health. Cox proportional hazard models indicated that each standard deviation increase in seeking advice was associated with an 11 percent decreased hazard of dying 20 years later. Self-sufficiency was not significantly related. Future research should examine contexts in which interpersonal strategies are adaptive, as seeking advice from others promotes longevity.
Older adults consistently report a lower likelihood of engaging in health and safety risks (e.g., substance use, not wearing seatbelts) than younger adults. However, the mechanisms that explain this ...age difference are not clear. Greater dispositional mindfulness is associated with lower engagement in health risk behaviors, and older adults tend to score higher in dispositional mindfulness than younger adults. Thus, we tested whether older adults’ greater dispositional mindfulness helped to explain their lesser health and safety risk-taking propensity. Two community-dwelling samples of younger (25–36 years) and older (60+ years) adults completed self-report measures of dispositional mindfulness and health and safety risk-taking propensity. In Study 1, older adults reported greater dispositional mindfulness and a lower likelihood to engage in health and safety risk behaviors than younger adults. Greater dispositional mindfulness was associated with lesser health and safety risk-taking propensity. Importantly, older adults’ greater dispositional mindfulness partially accounted for their lesser health and safety risk-taking propensity. These findings were replicated in Study 2, and an alternative mechanism (i.e., perceived health) was ruled out. The results suggest that age-related decreases in health and safety risk behaviors may be statistically explained, in part, by dispositional mindfulness. The current research has implications for behavioral interventions intended to increase preventative health behaviors and decrease health risk behaviors.
Drawing from life-span psychology, we conducted two studies to test perceptions of time left in the future as an underlying mechanism for age differences in self-reported social risk taking. Study 1 ...included 120 younger (25–35 years) and 119 older (60–91 years) community-dwelling adults. Study 2 included 439 participants (18–85 years) mostly recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk. In both studies, older age was associated with rating a lower likelihood of social risk taking (e.g., speaking about an unpopular issue) and perceiving the future as holding fewer future opportunities and being more limited. Perceptions of fewer future opportunities with aging statistically mediated age-related declines in social risk taking. Findings highlight motivational factors as key for understanding age differences in social risk taking. Implications of age differences in social risk taking on factors related to well-being, such as social support and strain, are discussed.
Abstract
Previous research has investigated challenges such as scarcity in housing, the loss of life, and the onset of mental health disorders such as PTSD that persist once a person has experienced ...a man-made disaster. This has been analyzed in populations such as older adults and other vulnerable groups of people. However, little to no consideration has been given to how age, in combination with trauma history, relates to indicators of psychological well-being after disasters. Here, using Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (SST) (Carstensen, 2006) and the Strength of Vulnerability Integration Model (SAVI) (Charles, 2013) we investigated age differences in two indicators of psychological well-being—depression and anxiety—among individuals following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill (DHOS). Specifically, trauma history and personal exposure to the DHOS were tested as potential moderators of age differences in psychological well-being. Residents of the US Gulf Coast region (N=2,508, M age= 57.72 yrs; 60.4% Women) were contacted via telephone and asked to complete the Survey of Trauma, Resilience, and Opportunity among Neighborhoods in the Gulf (STRONG). Regression analyses were used to investigate the roles of age, prior trauma, and DHOS exposure on psychological well-being after controlling for income, education, race, and gender. Implications of the findings for disaster preparedness interventions and theories of psychological well-being across the life span are discussed.
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