Measurement and Prediction of Aging Anxiety

Abstract

Anxiety about aging has been virtually neglected in extant research, but such anxiety should become increasingly important to understand as the population ages. This research addresses three questions pertaining to aging anxiety. First, is aging anxiety a meaningful unidimensional construct? Second, what is the age pattern of aging anxiety? Third, what factors influence aging anxiety? Confirmatory factor analyses are conducted to examine the factorial validity of an aging anxiety scale across age, sex, and race aggregates. Structural equation models are used to determine the influence of several covariates. There were several important findings, including that (1) aging anxiety can be measured as a single construct, although the scale taps a somewhat different dimension for younger persons; (2) fear of social losses does not appear to be a concern about aging; (3) the age pattern of anxiety is declining, except across midlife; and (4) race, gender, socioeconomic status, current health, income, education, and knowledge about aging each affect aging anxiety.