Age and the sense of control among older adults

Older adults are expected and frequently found to report less control than younger adults. In this study, we decompose this negative relationship between age and sense of control using nested multivariable linear regression models that serially introduce sociodemographic characteristics, socioeconomic factors, health status, and subjective religiosity and religious beliefs in a sample of 1,051 older adults attending the general medicine clinics of a major medical center. The results indicate that the effect of age is suppressed in the bivariable model. In the final multivariable model, educational attainment has the largest relative effect (i.e., beta; .253), followed by age (-.210), mental health (.174), subjective religiosity (.113), being an African American (-.100), perceived health (.082), and being Catholic (.068). Future research should focus on the inflection point in the relationship between age and the sense of control that apparently occurs at about 50 years of age.