Expectations Regarding Aging Survey

The Expectations Regarding Aging (ERA) Survey measures the degree to which an individual expects physical, mental, and cognitive functioning to decline as a normal and unavoidable part of growing older. Developed by Catherine Sarkisian and colleagues at UCLA, the original 38-item version (ERA-38, 2002) and the widely used 12-item short form (ERA-12, 2005) capture 'age expectations' — a self-perception-of-aging construct that predicts health behaviors and outcomes. Items are answered on a Likert scale and scored into three domain scores (expectations regarding physical health, mental health, and cognitive function) plus a total, conventionally rescaled to 0–100 where higher scores indicate higher (more positive) expectations. Low expectations — believing that decline is inevitable — are associated with less physical activity, lower help-seeking, and worse outcomes, making the ERA a key tool for studying how beliefs about aging shape behavior.