Perceptions of General Attitudes towards Older Adults in Society : Is There a Link between Perceived Life Satisfaction, Self-Compassion, and Health-Related Quality of Life?

Negative attitudes towards aging are common in society. However, few studies haveinvestigated how older adults perceive this phenomenon. This study investigated (a) how olderadults in Sweden perceive general attitudes towards the older population and whether negativeperceptions are associated with low life satisfaction, self-compassion, and health-related qualityof life (HRQL), and (b) whether perceived attitudes predict life satisfaction when controlling forHRQL, self-compassion, and age. The sample comprised 698 randomly selected participants, aged66–102 years, from the Blekinge part of the Swedish National Study on Ageing and Care. The resultsshowed that 25.7% of the participants held negative attitudes towards older adults and reportedlower life satisfaction and HRQL. Self-compassion was related to higher life satisfaction, perceivedpositive attitudes, and better mental HRQL. Overall, perceived attitudes, HRQL, self-compassion,and age predicted 44% of the participants’ life satisfaction. Understanding the factors that influenceolder adults’ life satisfaction is crucial, as health-related losses might reduce the opportunity fora successful life. Our study makes an important contribution to the field, showing that perceivedattitudes explained 1.2% of the variance of life satisfaction, whereas mental and physical HRQLaccounted for 18% of life satisfaction