A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Subjective Age and the Association With Cognition, Subjective Well-Being, and Depression

Abstract

Objectives: A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to quantify the degree to which subjective age is associated with cognition, subjective well-being, and depression.

Method: A systematic search was performed in three electronic social scientific databases, PsycINFO, Scopus, and Web of Science in May 2018. A manual forward and backward citation search of articles meeting the criteria for inclusion, including a mean participant age of 40+ years, was conducted in November 2019. Twenty-four independent data sets were included in the meta-analysis.

Results: Overall, a younger subjective age was related to enhanced subjective well-being and cognitive performance, and reduced depressive symptoms (r = .18). This association was stronger among collectivist (r = .24) than individualist (r = .16) cultures. Mean chronological age across samples (ranging from 55 to 83 years), type of subjective age scoring, and gender did not influence the strength of the overall association. Further analysis revealed that subjective age was individually associated with depressive symptoms (r = .20), subjective well-being (r = .17), and cognition (r = .14), and none had a stronger association with subjective age than the other.

Discussion: The results indicate a small yet significant association between subjective age and important developmental outcomes.

Keywords: Cognition; Depression; Felt age; Subjective aging; Well-being.