ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Psychology of Aging
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1569023
The effects of self-perceived aging and emotion regulation strategies on psychological abuse of elderly people in rural China: a structural equation modeling approach
Provisionally accepted
- 1Graduate School of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, China
- 2Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, China
- 3School of Pharmacy, North China University of Science and Technology, Tangshan, Hebei Province, China
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Background: In China, psychological abuse is increasingly prevalent among elderly people. Psychological abuse can have a significant negative impact on elderly people in terms of worsening chronic illness, increased suicide rick and death. Previous studies have suggested that self-perceived aging may serve as a risk factor for psychological abuse. However, the immediate impact of self-perceived aging on psychological abuse within Chinese culture remains unclear.Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between self-perceived aging and psychological abuse among rural Chinese older adults, while considering the parallel mediating role of emotion regulation strategies (including cognitive reappraisal and expressive inhibition). Research Design and Methods: A cross-sectional design was used in this study. A total of 449 rural older adults were recruited from a county in Dezhou City, Shandong Province, from July to October 2023 to assess self-perceived aging, cognitive reappraisal, expressive inhibition and psychological abuse. A hypothesized model based on Socioemotional Selectivity Theory pathways was proposed to examine the relationships between self-perceived aging, cognitive reappraisal, expressive inhibition and psychological abuse. Results: Higher self-perceived aging and expressive inhibition were positively associated with the propensity to be psychological abuse, and cognitive reappraisal was negatively associated with psychological abuse. Structural equation modelling revealed that the cognitive reappraisal and expressive inhibition strategy mediated the relationship between self-perceived aging and psychological abuse. Discussion and Implications: This study reveals that self-perceived aging is associated with the occurrence of psychological abuse in older adults as they enter the aging stage. It further suggests that part of this effect can be explained by cognitive reappraisal or expressive inhibition. Thus, the use of emotion regulation strategies may help to reduce the incidence of psychological abuse after self-perceived aging.
Keywords: Elder Abuse, aged care, cognitive reappraisal, psychological abuse, rural
Received: 06 Feb 2025; Accepted: 09 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhao, Pei, Li, Zhang, Wu and Dou. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Haoying Dou, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, China
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