Views on aging are target- and content-specific profiles rather than a single evaluative score, with country differences being profile-specific rather than uniform across Israeli and Japanese assisted-living residents.
Key Findings
Results
Japanese assisted-living residents reported higher interdependence than Israeli assisted-living residents, whereas independence did not differ significantly between the two countries.
Sample included 390 assisted-living records from Japan (n=203) and Israel (n=187)
Independence was examined non-directionally and showed no significant country difference
Interdependence was significantly higher in Japanese participants compared to Israeli participants
The study used measures of independence and interdependence alongside views on aging measures
Results
Country differences in views on aging were profile-specific rather than uniform across all four dimensions measured.
Israeli participants scored higher on Self-Resources, Other-Resources, and Other-Vulnerability compared to Japanese participants
Self-Vulnerability did not differ significantly between countries
The four dimensions assessed were Self-Resources, Self-Vulnerability, Other-Resources, and Other-Vulnerability
Results support treating views on aging as a target- and content-specific profile rather than as a single evaluative score
Results
The association between Other-Resources and Self-Resources was significantly stronger in Japan than in Israel.
The raw Other-Resources–Self-Resources correlation was significantly stronger in Japan than in Israel
A focused adjusted moderation model likewise indicated a steeper association in Japan
This suggests that other-directed views on aging are linked differently to personal self-views across the two cultural contexts
The moderation finding held after adjustment for background characteristics
Discussion
The study design and measurement limitations constrain the findings to country-level patterning and associations rather than demonstration of a cultural mechanism.
The design was cross-sectional, precluding causal inference
Several brief scales showed modest reliability
Findings can only indicate country-level patterning and associations
Authors note that the results cannot demonstrate a cultural mechanism underlying the observed differences
Background
Views on aging are multidimensional, differing by both target (self vs. other) and evaluative content (resources vs. vulnerability).
The study operationalized views on aging along two axes: target (aging self vs. older adults in general) and evaluative content (resources vs. vulnerability)
Little was previously known about how these facets are configured across cultural contexts
The four-cell profile framework (Self-Resources, Self-Vulnerability, Other-Resources, Other-Vulnerability) was applied using brief, parallel measures
Results empirically support treating views on aging as a multidimensional profile rather than a unidimensional construct
What This Means
This research compared how elderly people living in assisted-living facilities in Japan and Israel think about aging — both their own aging and aging in general among older adults. The researchers measured four specific aspects of aging views: personal resources (positive aspects of one's own aging), personal vulnerability (negative aspects of one's own aging), perceived resources in other older adults, and perceived vulnerability in other older adults. They found that Japanese and Israeli residents differed on some but not all of these dimensions. Israeli residents tended to hold more positive views about both their own aging resources and those of other older adults, and also perceived more vulnerability in other older adults. However, views about personal vulnerability were similar between the two groups.
One particularly interesting finding was that in Japan, how people viewed other older adults' resources was more closely tied to how they viewed their own aging resources compared to Israel. This suggests that in Japan, self-views and other-directed views about aging may be more interconnected, possibly reflecting cultural values around interdependence — indeed, Japanese participants also reported higher levels of interdependence as a personal value compared to Israeli participants.
This research suggests that how people think about aging cannot be captured by a single positive or negative score — instead, it matters whether someone is thinking about themselves or others, and whether they are focusing on strengths or vulnerabilities. These distinctions also appear to vary meaningfully across cultures. However, because the study was conducted at a single point in time and used brief measurement tools, the findings describe patterns rather than explain the cultural processes behind them. Future research using longer-term designs and more comprehensive measures could help clarify why these cultural differences exist.
Bodner E, Cohen-Fridel S, Rothermund K, de Paula Couto M, Ishimoto Y, Sakamoto R, et al.. (2026). Aging Resources and Vulnerability Across Targets: Self-Other Profiles in Israeli and Japanese Assisted-Living Residents.. Journal of cross-cultural gerontology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10823-026-09595-8