Development of a Japanese version of the Awareness of Age-Related Change Scale (AARC-10 SF) and investigation of its reliability and validity

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop a Japanese version of the AARC-10 SF and to examine its reliability and validity. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted on 898 valid respondents, and a two-factor structure (gains and losses) was confirmed. Multigroup structural equation modeling supported the partial metric invariance model for age groups and the factorial covariance invariance model for gender and education. Correlations with the validity scales showed generally the same pattern as in the original version. Furthermore, hierarchical multiple regression analysis confirmed that gains and losses measured new constructs different from the attitude toward aging and subjective age. These results indicate that the Japanese version of the AARC-10 SF is as reliable and valid as the original version.