Hopelessness mediates the relationship between self-perceptions of aging and negative affect: within-person results from the health and retirement study

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of self-perceptions of aging on positive and negative affect and to examine whether this association is mediated by sense of hopelessness. It was hypothesized that increases in positive self-perceptions of aging would be associated with decreases in hopelessness over time, which in turn would be associated with higher future levels of affective well-being. The study used longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study collected in 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020 (N ≈ 11,500, average age ≈ 62). The random-intercept cross-lagged panel model was used for analyzing the data. The mediation was tested at the temporal within-person level. The mediation hypothesis was supported for negative affect but not for positive affect. The results showed that higher-than-typical levels of positive perceptions of aging were associated with lower-than-typical levels of hopelessness, which in turn was related to lower-than-typical future levels of negative affect. Hopelessness mediates the longitudinal relationship between self-perceptions of aging and negative affect. The findings emphasize the significance of considering hope in interventions designed to address negative affect and subjective beliefs about aging.