Abstract Objectives Functional impairments among older adults are associated with reduced quality of life and greater healthcare burden. However, how older adults cognitively and emotionally represent these impairments and how such representations relate to behavioral intentions (ie, intentions to engage in recommended health behaviors) remains underexplored. This study applies the Common Sense Model of Self-Regulation to examine whether representations of impairments are shaped by age-related defensive motivation and how they are associated with behavioral intentions. Methods 301 Canadian adults aged 50–95 completed within-person assessments of cognitive and emotional representations across six functional impairments and reported health behavior intentions for each. Results Older age was associated with more positive emotional representations, and perceived timeline (acute vs chronic) moderated the association between age and consequences representations. Specifically, older age was associated with less severe perceived consequences for impairments perceived as chronic rather than acute. Timeline representations did not moderate the associations of age with identity, personal control, and treatment control representations. Representations of functional impairments, in turn, predicted behavioral intentions: more negative consequences and identity representations and higher treatment control were associated with stronger intentions, while higher personal control was unexpectedly associated with lower intentions. A moderated mediation analysis revealed that older adults' tendency to downplay the consequences of chronic impairments was indirectly associated with lower intentions. Discussion These findings highlight a motivational trade-off in aging, where emotional self-protection may undermine proactive health behaviors, and suggest it is important to balance emotional self-protection with accurate threat perception.
Peleg et al. (Wed,) studied this question.