Compensating for losses in perceived personal control over health: A role for collective self-esteem in healthy aging

Collective self-esteem (CSE) refers to an individual's self-evaluation of his or her social identity. We speculate that a positive social identity, or high CSE, facilitates accommodation to negative health-related circumstances in later life, especially when one feels unable to alter these circumstances directly. Accordingly, we hypothesized that CSE would be associated with fewer chronic conditions and greater perceived health for those with low perceived control. Hierarchical regression analyses of data from 1,267 respondents (60% women, aged 69-101) in the 1996 Aging in Manitoba survey confirmed the predicted CSE X Perceived Control interaction on both measures of health status. These findings persisted when respondents' self-rated loneliness was controlled. CSE may compensate to protect the health of older adults whose perceived personal control over health is low. Secondary control and alternative mechanisms for this protective effect are discussed.