Abstract:

Aging attitudes refer to how older adults psychologically evaluate their own aging process. Studies have analyzed the causes of aging attitudes from the perspectives of individual characteristics and family relationships. However, few have explored the social causes of aging attitudes, and even fewer have examined their historical trends over time. According to social ecosystem theory, aging attitudes are not isolated within individuals; rather, they are psychological states that evolve through interactions with the social environment. Nevertheless, the temporal trends of aging attitudes among Chinese older adults and their social causes remain unclear. To address this gap, this study conducted a cross-temporal meta-analysis of 72 articles (224 independent studies, N=48,539) to examine the changing trends and social causes of aging attitudes among Chinese older adults from 2008 to 2023.
The results revealed two main findings. (1) The overall level of aging attitudes showed a significant upward trend over the 16-year period, characterized by an increase in the psychological growth dimension and a decline in the psychosocial loss dimension, while no significant change was observed in the physical change dimension. Specifically, over the past sixteen years, the aging attitudes level among older adults in China increased by 2.70 z-scores. The physical change dimension level decreased by 0.75 z-scores, the psychological growth dimension level increased by 1.65 z-scores, and the psychosocial loss dimension level decreased by 2.40 z-scores. (2) Social welfare subsidies (i.e., per capita national expenditure on elderly welfare, and the proportions of older adults receiving old-age allowances, care allowances, and elderly service allowances), elderly care services (i.e., the number of care beds and the number of social workers in institutions and communities), and social participation services (i.e., the number of associations for older adults) significantly predicted changes in aging attitudes. However, the results also revealed differences in the effects of these social factors. First, regarding welfare security, the per capita national expenditure on elderly welfare and the proportion of older adults receiving old-age allowances had significant and long-term positive effects on aging attitudes. In contrast, the effects of the proportions of older adults receiving care allowances and elderly service allowances were primarily short-term. Second, regarding elderly care services, the number of institutional and community care beds and the number of social workers showed significant immediate positive effects on aging attitudes, but these lagged effects diminished notably. Third, regarding social participation services, the number of older adult associations had a significant positive effect on aging attitudes, but this effect only emerged with a two-year lag.
This study makes two major contributions. First, it reveals the long-term dynamic trajectory of aging attitudes and the differential trends across its dimensions. Previous cross-sectional studies have focused on individual differences at single time points, which cannot capture how aging attitudes change over time. Focusing on the period of accelerated population aging in China from 2008 to 2023, this study presents the historical trend of aging attitudes and reveals distinct trends across dimensions: psychosocial loss dimension significantly decreased over time, psychological growth dimension significantly increased, while the physical change dimension showed no significant change. These findings deepen the understanding of aging attitudes as a multidimensional construct and illuminate its dynamic and complex nature. Second, grounded in social ecosystem theory, this study examines the effects of welfare security, elderly care services, medical services, and social participation services on the changes in aging attitudes. The results reveal differentiated effect patterns: universal and residual welfare subsidies have different temporal sustainability effects; elderly care services provide primarily immediate psychological benefits; and social participation services exhibit a significant lagged effect. These findings demonstrate that the social environment exerts an effect on psychological cognition, and they further reveal the complex temporal boundary conditions of this effect, specifically immediate, short-term, and long-term effects.

Key words: aging attitude, physical changes, psychological growth, psychosocial loss, social factors, cross- temporal meta-analysis