Testing the Psychometric Properties of the Awareness of Age-Related Changes Questionnaire in a Sample of the Community-Dwelling Elderly in Iran

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Dept. of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran

2 Dept. of Psychological Aging Research, Psychological Institute, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany

10.22126/jap.2022.7125.1579

Abstract

Subjective aging appears to be an important aspect of processes of psychological aging at large. However, there is lack of an appropriate tool for assessing subjective aging in Iran. Therefore, the current study aimed to evaluate the reliability and validity of the short form 10-item awareness of age-related changes (AARC) questionnaire in an Iranian sample. The statistical population contained all older adults aged 60 and above living in six cities of Iran, namely Kermanshah, Tehran, Hamedan, Semnan, Tabriz and Urmia, among whom two samples of 352 (170 male and 182 female) and 325 people (131 male and 194 female) were selected, using convenience sampling, for exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), respectively. Participants filled out Casper et al.’s AARC questionnaire and Barker et al.’s perception of aging questionnaire. The factor structure of the questionnaire was analyzed using EFA with Varimax rotation, results of which indicated that there were 10 items which exhibited the highest loadings on 2 emerged components include AARC-gains (5 items) and AARC-losses (5 items). In terms of reliability indicators, the internal consistency for two subscales of AARC questionnaire (gains and losses) were shown to be 0.85 and 0.91, respectively, using Cronbach’s Alpha-coefficient. The validity of the questionnaire was analyzed using CFA and a test of convergent validity. The results of CFA indicated that the fitted model for two subscales of questionnaire, namely AARC-gains and AARC-losses, has a good fit in the study’s sample, which supports the validity of the questionnaire. Moreover, Pearson’s correlation coefficient revealed significant relationship between components of AARC and that of perception of aging. As such, AARC-gains was correlated positively with components of positive control and positive consequences, and negatively with remaining five components of perception of aging. AARC-losses, however, went in the exactly opposite direction. Consequently, the utilization of the 10-item AARC questionnaire in future studies and in the consideration of the interrelationship of subjective aging and other significant elderly-related variables may result in new findings regarding older living in Iran.

Keywords

References

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Aging Psychology
Volume 8, Issue 2
August 2022
Pages 133-119

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  • Receive Date: 10 November 2021
  • Accept Date: 04 February 2022

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