Sex Comparisons in Life Satisfaction and Psychosocial Adjustment Scores with an Older Adult Sample: Examining the Effect of Sex Role Differences in Older Cohorts

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Abstract
The present study examined how sex and other individual-difference factors (i.e., age level, locus of control orientation, and self-actualization subscale scores) relate to older adults' scores on life satisfaction and psychosocial adjustment. Seventy-eight older adults (n = 39 females) were recruited from independent-living retirement communities located in Pennsylvania. Results indicated that females in the sample were not significantly different in mean life satisfaction scores but were significantly lower in mean psychosocial adjustment scores than males in the sample. There were no significant age-level differences in mean scores. Qualitative data from unstructured post-testing interviews revealed that women were more likely to express regret and sometimes frustration toward perceived "missed opportunities" in life (e.g., career) due to expected social roles of being a wife and mother in the decades ranging from the 1920s through the 1960s; these feelings of regret or frustration were not expressed by any of the males in the study.