A recent study has discovered that younger adults tend to look and feel older when they experience stress, particularly when they perceive they have less control over their lives.
“Shevaun Neupert, a professor of psychology at North Carolina State University and the corresponding author of the study, highlights the considerable amount of research indicating that stress causes older adults to feel their age or even older than they are,” says Neupert. “The existing literature suggests that feeling older than one’s actual age among seniors is linked with various adverse health outcomes. However, there needs to be more research focusing on this effect among younger adults – individuals in their teens, 20s, and 30s. Gaining a better understanding of how this phenomenon affects people across different age groups could aid in creating interventions to safeguard both mental and physical health.
Neupert also points out that this research comes at a critical time, as there appears to be a rise in the stress levels experienced by younger adults today, compared to the stress levels endured by previous generations at the same age.”
This study gathered data from 107 younger adults aged between 18 and 36 years, with the average participant being around 20 years old. Participants completed a baseline survey and detailed daily surveys over eight consecutive days. These daily surveys aimed to measure the participants’ daily stress levels, their perceived control over their lives on that day, and how old they felt and looked each day.
Neupert explains, “A significant observation from the study was that participants felt and appeared older on days when they reported higher than usual levels of stress, but this effect was only noted on days when they also felt they had less control over their daily lives than usual. It’s crucial to note that the measurements of both stress and control were relative.”
That means that participants reporting lower-than-usual stress levels still exhibited the ageing effect if their stress was higher than they typically reported. Similarly, those who felt they maintained significant control over their lives still showed the effect if they reported less power than usual.
“This finding broadens our understanding by showing that the aging effect of stress isn’t exclusive to older individuals; young people are affected too,” Neupert remarks. “This is particularly significant given the knowledge that chronic stress can lead to negative health outcomes and that people generally report higher levels of stress as they transition from young adulthood into midlife. Given that young people are currently experiencing unprecedented levels of stress for their age, and this stress influences their perceived age, it’s crucial for us to closely monitor the indicators used to evaluate the physical and mental health impacts of stress in this generation.”
More information: Sofia E. Lee et al, The effect of control beliefs on the relationship between daily stressors and subjective age in younger adults, Mental Health Science. DOI: 10.1002/mhs2.56
Journal information: Mental Health Science Provided by North Carolina State University
