ReviewThe Gerontologist2017
Age Differences in Self-Continuity: Converging Evidence and Directions for Future Research.
Review in The Gerontologist, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Association Between Psychological Interventions and Chronic Pain Outcomes in Older Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.JAMA internal medicine · 2018Pooled it
- Adults have rather stable, yet domain-specific tendencies in social and temporal comparisons.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Future Self-Continuity and Psychological Well-Being in Chinese College Students: The Mediating Role of Meaning in Life and the Moderating Role of Moral Identity.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Psychological mechanism of character strengths and psychological stress affecting the athletic performance in swimmers.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Differences in the Temporal Extension of Self-Continuity Over the Course of the COVID-19 Pandemic.Self and identity : the journal of the International Society for Self and Identity · 2024Article
- Aging and Economic Preferences: Cumulative Meta-Analyses of Age Differences in Risk, Time, Social, and Effort Preferences.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2023Article
- Feeling Safe and Nostalgia in Healthy Aging.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Review
- Culture, Aging, Self-Continuity, and Life Satisfaction.Journal of happiness studies · 2022Article
- Better Later Than Never: Meaning in Late Life.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Review
- Looking Back From the Future: Perspective Taking in Virtual Reality Increases Future Self-Continuity.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Article
- Age Effects in Sequence-Construction for a Continuous Cognitive Task: Similar Sequence-Trends but Fewer Switch-Points.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2020Article
- Discontinuity in the Subjective Experience of Self Among People with Mild-To-Moderate Dementia Is Associated with Poorer Psychological Health: Findings from the IDEAL Cohort.Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD · 2020Article
- The Mental Landscape of Imagining Life Beyond the Current Life Span: Implications for Construal and Self-Continuity.Innovation in aging · 2020Article
- Preferences for Temporal Sequences of Real Outcomes Differ Across Domains but do not Vary by Age.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2019Article
- Aging and Decision-Making: A Conceptual Framework for Future Research - A Mini-Review.Gerontology · 2018Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Life-span development is inherently linked to the perception of time and associated temporal construals. Such concepts are multi-faceted in nature and have important practical implications in areas such as time management, financial planning, or medical choices. A large body of research has documented age-related limitations in global time horizons, but age differences in other aspects of temporal construal are comparatively poorly understood. The present article draws attention to developmental trajectories of self-continuity, defined as perceived associations of one's present self with past and future selves. After considering historical roots and contemporary views on self-continuity, we turn to the life-span developmental literature and review several convergent streams of research that provide indirect evidence for age-related increases in self-continuity. We then consider a small body of recent studies which have directly assessed age differences in self-continuity and summarize our current understanding of this phenomenon including associations between explicit and implicit measures, symmetry between past and future self-continuity, and differentiation from other aspects of time perception. We conclude by highlighting open theoretical questions and considering the practical implications of an increased sense of self-continuity with advancing age.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.