Dispositional hope as a moderator of the associations between older adults’ own age-related communication and aging efficacy

Grounded in the communicative ecology model of successful aging, this study examined older adults’ dispositional hope (comprised of agency and pathways hope) as a moderator of the associations between their own age-related communication and aging efficacy. Three-hundred U.S. American adults aged 50 and older (62.0% female, 83.0% European American, MAge = 59.74 years, SDAge = 7.85 years) completed a survey about their own age-related communication, aging efficacy, and dispositional hope. Four profiles of age-related communication emerged: engaged, disengaged, bantering, and gloomy agers. Dispositional hope moderated how the probabilities of being engaged and bantering agers were associated with aging efficacy: The probability of being an engaged ager was positively associated with efficacy for adults with high agency and pathways hope but not associated with efficacy for adults with low agency and pathways hope. Further, the probability of being a bantering ager was positively associated with efficacy for adults with low agency and pathways hope. The probability of being a bantering ager was not associated with efficacy for adults with high agency hope, but was negatively associated with efficacy for adults with high pathways hope. The study illuminates contingencies under which age-related communication is associated with aging efficacy.