“A Continuous Opening of Life”: Perspectives on Aging Across Time, Gender, and Race

Abstract

Research on narrative identity—the ongoing process of shaping and being shaped by life stories—provides rich insight into personality development and can predict psychosocial well- being. However, narratives about aging remain underexamined, limiting our understanding of narrative identity processes over the life course. We explored individuals’ narratives on aging, examining how narrative themes vary across age, gender, and race, and relate to four domains of self-reported well-being (psychological well-being, generativity, physical health, body image). We analyzed narrative scenes from 143 late midlife adults (62% women, 38% men; 58% White, 40% Black, 2% interracial/other) twice, first at mean age 60.37 (SD=0.90; n=135) and again at mean age 64.5 (SD=0.95; n=136). Participants responded to questions about stability versus change in personal identity and feelings about the aging process. We coded five narrative themes: agency, communion, closure, self-actualization, and exploratory processing. Results showed exploratory processing was the only narrative theme to increase significantly over time. Black participants scored higher than White participants on agency, self- actualization, and closure; no gender differences were found. Most narrative themes predicted well-being measures in models controlling for race. In particular, self-actualization predicted all four measures, and agency predicted all but generativity. Psychological well-being was predicted by four of five themes and physical health/fitness was predicted by three. We interpret these findings in the context of the interplay of race, gender, and master narratives, and highlight the importance of narrative identity processes to well-being in late midlife, with implications for understanding diverse aging experiences