Feeling Young and Old Together: Daily Subjective Age in a Dyadic Context

Subjective age fluctuates considerably within persons across different contexts. The present study examined (a) whether older adults’ daily subjective age is associated with their respective romantic partner’s subjective age, and (b) whether such subjective age covariation is moderated by how everyday problems are appraised and approached. During a 10-day daily diary study, 67 older couples from Canada (age range 60–89 years) individually provided parallel ratings of how old they felt each day. They also reported their most bothersome problem that day and how they dealt with the problem together with their partner (collaborative problem solving). As predicted, multilevel regression analyses showed evidence for dyadic covariation in daily subjective age; changes in older adults’ subjective age were significantly associated with concurrent changes in their partners’ subjective age. Subjective age covariation was weaker on days when older adults reported higher severity problems and stronger on days when collaborative problem solving was higher. This moderation was specific to taking joint actions, and it did not emerge for emotional support. Our findings highlight the importance of social contexts for subjective age by providing insights into the circumstances under which individual subjective age covaries with the respective partner as couples engage in their daily lives.