Older adults’ recalled memorable messages about aging and their role in the communicative ecology model of successful aging

ABSTRACT

This study examined how older adults’ dispositional hope was associated with the themes of up to three recalled memorable messages about aging, as well as how older adults’ own age-related communication and memorable message themes were indirectly associated with successful aging, via aging efficacy. Dispositional hope was positively associated with the recollection of memorable messages with a theme of aging is not important or aging is a subjective state that can be overcome with the right mind-set. Relative to engaged agers, bantering agers and gloomy agers reported less successful aging, via less aging efficacy. The memorable message themes were not indirectly associated with successful aging, via aging efficacy. The results suggest that people may have some agency in how well they age, and the results also inform conceptual and methodological issues in memorable messages scholarship.

KEYWORDS:

• Communicative ecology model of successful aging
• hope theory
• memorable messages
• aging efficacy
• successful aging

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website

Notes

1. This is the second study from the data set. The first study considered how older adults’ subjective impressions of how much time they have left to live (i.e., future time perspectives) moderated how their own age-related communication patterns were associated with their aging efficacy. The first study did not consider memorable messages or hope, which are the main foci of the current study.

2. As shown in the online-only appendix, participants were asked whether or not they could recall a second-most important memorable message and a third-most important memorable message before they wrote these messages. Twenty-seven participants indicated that they could not recall a second-most important memorable message about aging. An additional 35 participants indicated that they could not recall a third-most important memorable message about aging. As such, the prevalence of several memorable message themes decreased when moving from the most important memorable message to the second- and third-most important memorable messages.

3. Fit indices for all five LPAs are available upon request. A latent profile plot for the four-profile solution is also available upon request.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Quinten S. Bernhold

Quinten S. Bernhold is an assistant professor in the School of Communication Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His research examines intergenerational communication and family communication.