SEX COMPARISONS IN LIFE SATISFACTION AND PSYCHOSOCIAL ADJUSTMENT SCORES WITH AN OLDER ADULT SAMPLE - EXAMINING THE EFFECT OF SEX-ROLE DIFFERENCES IN OLDER COHORTS

The present study examined how sex and other individual-difference fac tors (i.e., age level, locus of control orientation, and self-actualiz ation subscale scores) relate to older adults' scores on life satisfac tion and psychosocial adjustment. Seventy-eight older adults (n = 39 f emales) 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 m ales in the sample. There were no significant age-level differences in mean scores. Qualitative data from unstructured post-testing intervie ws revealed that women were more likely to express regret and sometime s frustration toward perceived ''missed opportunities'' in life (e.g., career) due to expected social roles of being a wife and mother in th e decades ranging from the 1920s through the 1960s; these feelings of regret or frustration were not expressed by any of the males in the st udy.