The Relationship Between Subjective Age and Some Sociodemographic Characteristics, Personality Traits and Health

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine three indicators of subjective age (cognitive, comparative and ideal age), their inter-correlations and their relationships with some sociodemographic characteristics, the Big-Five personality traits, and self-rated health. 230 subjects aged 20 to 72 years, from several Croatian cities, participated in the study. The relevant constructs were measured by IPIP50 personality questionnaire, and by questions referring to different aspects of subjective age and self-rated health. The results have shown that cognitive and ideal ages of participants were on average significantly lower than their chronological age, and the majority of them felt younger compared to their age group. With an increase in chronological age, the discrepancy between subjective age indicators and chronological age rose. Furthermore, there were no significant gender differences in subjective age, neither was a significant correlation of education with measures of subjective age found. Contrary to expectations, the results of hierarchical regression analysis showed that the Big-Five personality traits are better predictors of subjective age than self-rated health. However, personality traits, as well as self- -rated health, after controlling for chronological age, explained only a small proportion of variance of the three indicators of subjective age.