Correlates of apparel significance among older men and women

A total of 978 older men and women (over 65 years) were systematically identified from a list of registered voters and asked to participate in a study examining the correlates of apparel significance (extent to which apparel is considered important by an individual). A postal survey technique was used to collect the data. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse and interpret the data. The condition number index was used to test for multicollinearity of data. Pearson product moment correlation coefficients, analysis of variance and stepwise multiple regression were used to analyse the data. The findings revealed that apparel significance was positively related to self‐esteem, age perception, media usage, opinion leadership and social participation. Stepwise multiple regression results indicated that 65·3% of the variance was explained by media usage, opinion leadership and sex.