engleski

Workload and subjective age

Age may be conceptualised in a variety of ways other than chronological age. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between different age measures and physical, mental and social demands of work. Subjects were professionals in social care (N = 1729) with the mean age of 41.8 years (range 20 - 64). They were administered a questionnaire from which we selected work and age related items for analysis. Physical, mental and social demands of work were assessed in terms of subjects' reports of effort required by the work as well as tiredness and tension resulting from the work. Subjective age measures included cognitive age ("How old do you feel, act, do, have interests?"), desired age ("What age would you like to be if you could choose an age right now?") and successful age ("At what age is a person most successful in life?"). Consistent with the results of other studies, we found that the subject felt younger than their actual age (about 4 years), desired to be even younger (8 years) and believed that the person who is five years younger than them is most successful in its job. The different age measures showed different relationships with aspects of work demands. Older cognitive age was related to more tiredness and tension at the end of the workday. Contrary to this, older desired and success ages were associated with less physical tiredness resulting from the work, and less physical efforts needed to complete the work.

Subjective age; Work demands; Life satisfaction

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