Women and self-care? It gets better with age

“We mapped thoughts, emotions, practices. We went to evaluate some extended individual narratives and we did an analysis of the posts present on social media.” Marco Francesco MazzùProfessor of Practice of Marketing at Luiss and Luiss Business School, supported by Simona Romani, Full Professor of Consumer Behaviour at Luiss, the University named after Guido Carli, thus tells the story of the birth of the studio Self-care habits, barriers and solutions – Attitudes and behaviors of Italian women in their self-care experiences. The study, conducted on 1450 Italian women of different age groups (18-65 years) between June and July 2024, explored the concept of self-care, the main regenerating actions including barriers and possible solutions.

In the research it was immediately evident that self care experiences are particularly varied. They can be traced back to these groups: body care, relational activities with friends and family, physical, mental or spiritual regeneration and cultivating one’s interests. «Central is the locus of control, that is, whether an individual believes that the events of his or her life are produced either by his or her own actions or by external causes independent of his or her will. This also applies to the ways in which each individual deals with care practices. In the first case, there are feelings of well-being. When the locus is external, however, everything becomes a job, an effort in terms of time, money, and cognitive resources. This is often justified by social motivations: the need to adhere to ideal expectations of external society».

From the data seen, a significant axis of differentiation is given by the age groups. It is common for all to have a strong need and desire to take care of themselves (99%), only 2 out of 3 are able to do it as they would like and the majority do it with limited time: less than 30 minutes a day. It is called self-care paradox. «The younger age groups think they have little time for self-care because they have so many external pressures to satisfy. The perception of lack of time is one of the barriers that women pose to themselves. Then comes the priority given to others and then the time dedicated to work including that lost in commuting or interactions required outside of working hours. Then the issue of family: partners, parents, children. Individuals are made up of multiple identities and managing these is fundamental. If the woman is able to manage them, she is also able to carve out time for self-care and have a better self-perception. Otherwise, negative perceptions and stress are created. From 25 to 34 years old, the pride of being able to manage multiple roles is very interesting: leaving home, the first important relationships, work.”

There is some good news: you learn to manage these roles throughout your life. “The sense of guilt in taking care of yourself decreases with increasing age. Experiences and past experiences allow you to acquire a different awareness: how can I give the right weight to have a healthy selfishness without penalizing relationships. The fact that people think that the events of their life are produced by their actions becomes prevalent. This leads to a greater ability to regulate themselves.”

The research was carried out for Pantene, a national leader in the hair care sector, which presented the Regenerate Actions Movement, a new movement that invites all women to reflect on the importance of taking care of themselves every day starting from small and simple daily actions.