Differences in awareness of and coping with aging in midlife in relation to activation of domain-specific concern/interest

Abstract

The present study examined the effects of differences in concern/interest, a domain-specific self-concept, on individual differences in midlife development, focusing on 3 theoretically driven types of concern/interest, specifically, low concern/interest, high concern/interest, and distributive concern/interest, characterized by the domain in which each person is concerned/interested. Study 1 assessed the validity of these 3 types. Criterion-related validity and content validity were examined. The validity of the 3 types of concern/interest was supported by results consistent with the theoretical hypothesis. Study 2 examined the profiles of each type of concern/interest in relation to the participants' awareness of aging and their process of coping with aging. The adults with low concern/interest showed a lower level of self-awareness of declines associated with aging, and engaged less in psychological processes that aimed to cope with such declines. The adults who were highly concerned/interested and those who showed distributive concern/interest showed generally similar trends. However, in coping with a decline in psychosocial aspects, the adults with distributive concern/interest displayed an adaptive transition toward decreasing problem-oriented coping, whereas the adults who were highly interested/concerned tended to give up on attempting to cope.