Recalling self-disruptive events and maintaining self-continuity in adulthood.

Older adults exhibit a stronger sense of self-continuity than the young. How do they accomplish that? The present study examines that issue using a life story lens. We investigated (a) whether older adults differ from the young when narrating self-disruptive (i.e., compared to nondisruptive) personal life events in the extent to which they focus on stability, change, and event-event connections and (b) if these ways of narrating self-disruptive events mediate relations between a person's age and sense of self-continuity. Participants (N = 185; 53% women) completed a sense of self-continuity measure and orally shared two nondisruptive and two self-disruptive life events. Event narratives were transcribed, and best practices were used for reliable content analysis. Mixed analysis of variances showed that, regardless of age, individuals narrated greater stability when recalling self-disruptive than nondisruptive life events. Older adults described less change and made more event-event connections than younger adults when recalling self-disruptive events. In mediation analyses, older adults' stronger sense of self-continuity (i.e., compared to younger adults) was partially explained by their narrating more event-event connections in recalling self-disruptive life events. Narrating more stability was not a mediator but was directly related to having a greater sense of self-continuity, regardless of age. Post hoc analyses indicated that greater narration of change was related to a lower sense of self-continuity for older, not younger, adults. We draw on lifespan and life story theories to suggest that older adults' narratives may situate self-disruptive events in larger biographical context, fostering a greater experience of self-continuity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).