Factors affecting older Hong Kong Chinese adults’ perception of successful aging

Subjective social status (SSS) represents one’s perception of his/her position in a social hierarchy. Past research revealed that people with higher SSS generally had greater feelings of mastery, thus resulting in higher perceived control of their lives. Meanwhile, personal control, as a resource for proactive coping, was beneficial for an older adult to achieve successful aging. Therefore, this study investigated how older adults’ SSS contributes to successful aging through the mediating effect of perceived sense of control. A sample of 255 Hong Kong Chinese adults aged 65 and above took part in the baseline study of Adult Development and Aging project, and their responses to the MacArthur Scale of Subjective Social Status, Sense of Control Scale, and Successful Aging Scale were included for analysis. Mediation analysis was conducted on successful aging with age, gender, education, and marital status being controlled as covariates. SSS positively predicted sense of control (B =.14, SE = .03, 95% CI[.09, .20]), which subsequently predicted successful aging (B = .30, SE = .05, 95% CI[.21, .40]). The indirect effect of SSS on successful aging through sense of control was also significant (B = .04, SE = .01, 95% CI[.02, .07]). The R2 of this mediator model was .21. The findings revealed the relationships among SSS, sense of control, and successful aging among Hong Kong older adults. Future studies could take sense of control into consideration when promoting successful aging in late life.