Aging Resources and Vulnerability Across Targets: Self-Other Profiles in Israeli and Japanese Assisted-Living Residents.

Views on aging (VoA) are multidimensional: they may differ by target (the aging self vs. older adults in general) and by evaluative content (resources vs. vulnerability). However, little is known about how these facets are configured across cultural contexts, or whether other-directed VoA are linked differently to personal self-views in different countries. In a cross-sectional two-country comparison, we analyzed 390 assisted-living records from Japan (n = 203) and Israel (n = 187), using brief, parallel VoA measures together with measures of independence, interdependence, and background characteristics. Japanese participants reported higher interdependence than Israeli participants, whereas independence, which was examined non-directionally, did not differ significantly. Country differences in VoA were profile-specific rather than uniform: Israeli participants scored higher on Self-Resources, Other-Resources, and Other-Vulnerability, whereas Self-Vulnerability did not differ between countries. The raw Other-Resources-Self-Resources correlation was significantly stronger in Japan than in Israel, and the focused adjusted moderation model likewise indicated a steeper association in Japan. Because the design was cross-sectional and several brief scales showed modest reliability, the findings can only indicate country-level patterning and associations rather than demonstrate a cultural mechanism. The results support treating VoA as a target- and content-specific profile rather than as a single evaluative score.