The impact of war-related stressors on subjective views of aging in daily life

The experience of stress, adversity, and extreme life events can significantly impact the aging process. Yet, empirical evidence is sparse regarding the impact of war-related stress on midlife and older adults’ subjective views of aging, especially in short-term, daily contexts. We investigated the experience of war-related stress on subjective age, subjective accelerated aging, and subjective nearness to death in two samples of adults aged 50 and older exposed to war. N = 71 adults aged 50–78 years from Ukraine reported on their war-related daily stress and their daily experience of aging over 14 days during the third year of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. N = 177 Israeli adults aged 50–70 years reported on the same variables weekly for more than 6 weeks during the hostage deal of the Israel-Hamas War in early 2025. Multilevel regression analyses yielded no stable association with subjective age. Subjective accelerated aging was associated with war-related stress on the between-person level in Ukraine, while this effect was within-person in Israel; there was also a within-person association for nearness to death as Israeli participants felt closer to death in weeks with more war-related stress. Our findings expand on previous studies and inform theoretical models aimed at understanding how historical contexts, particularly extreme adversity and disasters and their materialization in daily life, affect midlife and older adults’ experiences of aging.