Time Hurries on but Does not Fly in Older Age — No Effect of Depressive Symptoms

Abstract

Abstract Research on the commonly known phenomenon of perceived accelerated time passage with increasing age has provided inconsistent results. This could be due to a mediating time-slowing effect of depressive symptoms as the prevalence of depression does also alter with age. Based on a large sample of 380 subjects covering a continuous range of age between 20 and 70 years, we tested whether the assumed age-related effect on time perception is being mediated by symptoms of depression. Cross-sectional differences indicate a weak, but significant nonlinear acceleration of the perceived passage of time especially during mid-adulthood, whereas no further alteration was observed above the age of 60. In contrast to our hypothesis, symptoms of depression did clearly not mediate the effects of age on perceived time passage. Moreover, neither time passage ratings nor age were significantly related to the severity of depressive symptoms. Our results are partly compatible with (and extend) several previous reports, indicating that subjective time passage changes over the life span in a nonlinear fashion; they do not provide evidence for a mediating time-slowing effect of depressive symptoms in nonclinical samples.