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Socioeconomic Status and Age Identity: The Role of Dimensions of Health in the Subjective Construction of Age

Department of Sociology, Florida State University, Tallahassee.

Address correspondence to Anne E. Barrett, Pepper Institute on Aging and Public Policy, 636 West Call Street, Tallahassee, FL 32306-1121. E-mail: abarrett{at}fsu.edu

Objectives. This study examines health inequality as a potential explanation for socioeconomic differences in age identity. The following dimensions of health are examined: comparative self-rated health, self-assessed changes in physiological well-being, prospective self-rated health, perceived control over health, chronic conditions, and parents' health. Components of health also are explored as possible mediators of age differences in the effect of socioeconomic status on age identity.

Methods. Using the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States, ordinary least squares regression models of age identity are estimated for a representative sample of the noninstitutionalized U.S. population between the ages of 25 and 74 (n = 2,864).

Results. The older identities held by the less socioeconomically advantaged are explained by their worse health, particularly their less favorable predictions of future health, compared with their wealthier peers. Differences in age identity by education and perceived financial well-being are greatest among older adults; however, health only partially accounts for these age patterns.

Discussion. This study reveals that health inequalities shape the subjective experience of aging. Further work using longitudinal data is needed to determine the precise causal pathways linking socioeconomic status, health, and age identity.

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