Do Motivation for Active Aging and Personal and Social Resources Predict Change in Perceived Expectations for Active Aging?

Perceived expectations for active aging (PEAA) regard subjective exposure to social expectations to stay active in old age (e.g., maintain good health and engage socially). Recent cross-sectional evidence suggested that subjective factors, particularly domain-specific motivation, contribute to PEAA in German adults of all ages. In the present study, we investigated the effects of motivation for active aging and personal and social resources on the change in domain-specific PEAA (health and social engagement) over one year in young-old adults (preregistered at https://osf.io/8rud5, Part I and II). To this end, we employed two waves of data (2009 and 2010) from the Jena Study on Social Change and Human Development that surveyed German adults aged 56–75. Residual-change analyses yielded few significant longitudinal effects. In the social engagement domain, generativity predicted a more positive residual change in PEAA, whereas the life goal of staying healthy predicted a more negative residual change (both effects were only marginally significant). In the health domain, perceived general social support in combination with the presence of role models for change predicted a more positive residual change in PEAA. Our findings underscore the role of motivation to age actively in PEAA and highlight the importance of domain specificity in studying PEAA.