Life Span Development of Self-Continuity in late Adulthood: The Impact of Chronological Age, Loss of Partner and Aversive Childhood Events

ABSTRACT

Self-continuity is a central process of identity that connects one’s past and present. Research is limited regarding the life-course determinants of self-continuity and its development in later life. We used multilevel hierarchical models to investigate how the occurrence of life-course adversity (e.g., childhood adversity or partner loss) and the accumulation of resources shapes the perception of self-continuity in mid and later life, with respect to both their levels and changes over time. A three-wave longitudinal data set was used. The sample consisted of divorcees (n = 396), widows and widowers (n = 319), and married individuals (control; n = 513) in the second half of life. The divorcees had the lowest levels of self-continuity compared to the married and widowed individuals. Self-continuity increased with age for all marital status groups but followed differential trajectories. The divorcees were the most vulnerable group regarding their level and development of self-continuity. More childhood adversity was associated with less self-continuity for all groups, showing the influence of distal adversity on later life identity processes. Our findings illustrate that self-continuity changes as a function of age but differs based on the adverse events experienced across the life course.

KEYWORDS:

• Identity mechanism
• childhood adversity
• partner loss
• critical life events
• life course

Disclosure statement

The authors do not have any potential competing interest.

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in FORS Center open repository at 10.23662/FORS-DS-821-1, reference number of study 12,478.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2022.2157869

Notes

1. The larger study recruited individuals over the age of 40. For this study, in order to have somewhat comparable groups (divorcees between 40–45 were over-sampled and bereaved individuals under-sampled) we included individuals over the age of 45, resulting in a smaller sample size.