UC San Diego

Objective

The goal of this study was to examine if mental health and psychosocial well-being differed between middle-aged (MA; 40-59 years), younger-old (YO; 60-79 years), and older-old (OO; 80+ years) adults with respect to their trends, heterogeneity, and correlates.

Methods

Eighteen mental health and psychosocial well-being instruments were administered to 590 adults over age 40. Cross-sectional data also included self-report-based measures of sociodemographics, cognitive functioning, physical health and activity, and body mass index.

Results

Age trends across instruments varied in magnitude and shape, but generally supported an inverted U-shaped trend in mental health and psychosocial well-being, with small increases from MA to YO age (d = 0.29) and smaller declines from YO to OO age (d = -0.17). A U-shaped association between age and mental health heterogeneity was also observed. The strongest correlates of mental health and psychosocial well-being differed by age (MA: perceived stress; YO: successful aging; OO: compassion toward others), as did the associations of a flourishing versus languishing mental health and well-being profile.

Conclusions

Our findings support the "paradox of aging," whereby declines in physical and cognitive health co-occur with relatively preserved mental health and well-being. Our findings indicate that variance in mental and psychosocial health does not increase linearly with age and support careful consideration of heterogeneity in mental health and aging research. Our findings also suggest that mental health and psychosocial well-being decouple from stress-related dimensions in MA and become increasingly associated with positive, other-oriented emotions in OO, broadly supporting socioemotional theories of aging.