Evaluating age differences in intent to engage in healthy behaviors: A construal level theory perspective

Construal level theory (CLT; Liberman & Trope, 1998) suggests that psychological distance affects how people construe objects and events, and that construal level affects behavior. Research has consistently demonstrated that people endorse higher-level (abstract) descriptions of behavior when they perceive the behavior to occur in the distant future, and lower-level (concrete) descriptions when they perceive the behavior to occur in the near future. Recently, CLT research has evaluated the effects of temporal distance on health behavior intentions, and findings indicate higher-level construal for temporally distant health behaviors. Older adults' more limited time perspective may impact their construal level, yet with the exception of one study (Maloukis et al., 2013), older adults have not been included in CLT research. The present study extended the CLT literature to evaluate age-related differences in intent to engage in health behaviors, construal, and future time perspective (FTP). Older (n = 57) and younger (n = 69) adult participants were randomly assigned to one of three time conditions (control, near future, distant future; 42 participants per time condition) and completed measures of health behavior intention, behavior identification (i.e., construal), and FTP. Age differences were identified for intent to engage in health behaviors and FTP, but not for behavior identification. Time condition did not significantly impact health behavior intention, behavior identification, or FTP. Additional analyses provide minimal support for previous research. Results are examined using CLT, recommendations for future research are discussed, and implications of construal level for health promotion/disease prevention programs are presented.