Seniors Feel More Youthful When They Also Feel in Control

A study published in Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences suggests older adults may feel younger than their age on days when they feel most in control of their lives, reports Reuters Health . Overall, individuals who think they can influence the outcomes and events in their daily lives feel a greater sense of control than those who feel more helpless. Researchers had 116 older adults, aged 60 to 90, and 107 younger adults, 18 to 36, fill out daily surveys for eight straight days. They were queried about their daily stresses, physical health, sense of control over their daily lives, and how old they "felt." Feeling in more control on any given day did not appear to make younger subjects feel younger, although they did report feeling younger than their chronological age at times when they had low levels of stress and few or no health complaints. Older adults typically felt about two to four years younger on days when they felt more in control than usual. "I think it is possible that when older adults feel in control of their lives they may not feel as though their daily lives align with negative stereotypes about growing old, thus they may report feeling younger than their chronological age," said Friedrich Schiller University's Jennifer Bellingtier.