Abstract
While literature demonstrates the association between health and subjective age, less is known about the causal pathways between them. The purpose of this study is to examine the mediating role of sense of control on the relationship between health and subjective age. Health is measured as number of chronic conditions, number of limitations in Activities of Daily Living (ADL’s) and number of limitations in Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL’s). This study uses data from the 2010 wave of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed to analyze the relationship between health and subjective age. Full information maximum likelihood method accounted for the missing data, and bootstrapping method tested the significance levels of the mediating pathways of sense of control. Number of chronic conditions significantly increased subjective age, but sense of control did not mediate this association. The number of ADL limitations were positively associated with subjective age, and sense of control partially mediated the association. Also, was significant only when mediated by sense of control. Findings suggest that for subjective age, sense of control has a significant role on its relationship with ADL and IADL limitations but not on its association with number of chronic conditions. The findings provide insight into an innovative approach to research subjective age, and further analyses may provide a better understanding of these relationships.