The Effects of the Korean Germans' Late Life Preparation on Successful Aging

Abstract With increasing life expectancy, late life has become a longer, crucial part of the individual and dyadic life course. New opportunities, tasks and decisions emerged. Successful aging norms emphasize agency and autonomy. This can be activating, but also alienating. With increasing constraints, agency is limited and ideals of autonomy become dysfunctional. This challenges also relationships. Aging, functional losses and approaching death threaten dyadic satisfaction and functionality. Potentially, successful aging norms could erode dyadic solidarity when needed the most: in late life. This mixed-methods longitudinal study combines interviews and questionnaires at three observations across five years. Its focus lies on change over time and findings at observation three. The sample consists of eight German couples (78-86 years old, 50-65 years married, high relationship satisfaction, white, urban). What does aging mean for individualized actors? How do aging couples negotiate, decide and act on aging, autonomy and death? How do successful aging norms modulate dyadic aging? Overall, actors have internalized successful aging and benefit by influencing their health positively. However, this has become ambivalent. Actors increasingly perceive their future as limited and beyond individual control. Acceptance of losses that challenge the self is difficult, autonomy ideals burdensome and death salient. As individual agency is constrained, the dyad is still a functional stronghold against aging. Yet, it has to adapt as well to – potentially differential - individual aging. Losses can and do threaten couples’ functional and emotional unity. Four patterns of self-dyad dynamics emerged and exemplify tensions between individualized and dyadic successful aging.

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Meeting Challenges of Late Life Disability Proactively

Innovation in Aging ◽

10.1093/geroni/igz023 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 (4) ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Eva Kahana ◽

Jeffrey S Kahana ◽

Boaz Kahana ◽

Polina Ermoshkina

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Successful Aging ◽

Functional Limitations ◽

Late Life ◽

Well Being ◽

Human Potential ◽

Intergenerational Support ◽

Self Advocacy ◽

Integrative View ◽

Future Care

Abstract Discussions of disability in the gerontological and the disability studies literatures have seldom considered unique perspectives and needs of older adults. Disability has often been stigmatized and viewed as antithetical to successful aging. We call for expansion of prevailing paradigms of disability to address the resilience and continuing human potential of older adults living with disabilities. In addition to recognizing the environmental context of disability, we propose greater attention to adaptive potential of disabled older adults. We discuss 6 types of proactive adaptations that can contribute to empowerment, meaning, enhanced quality of life and psychological well-being among persons living with late-life onset disabilities. These include: (a) helping others, (b) planning for future care, (c) marshaling intergenerational support, (d) self-advocacy for responsive health care, (e) making environmental modifications to improve safety and comfort of the home, and (f) finding strength in spiritual pursuits. Enacting proactive adaptations can contribute to resilience in facing late life impairments and functional limitations. Such efforts can complement utilization of services and obtaining accommodations. Maintaining life satisfaction among older adults living with disabilities also involves focus on transcendent personal goals and acceptance of an altered self. We note how a more integrative view of medical and social dimensions of disability, infused with concepts of human agency, contributes to rapprochement between alternative disciplinary orientations to late life disability. Without negating society’s important responsibilities for accommodating to needs of older adults living with disability, we reaffirm their potential for greater control and self-determination through proactive adaptations.

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DON’T JUST GO THROUGH LIFE, GROW THROUGH LIFE: RESILIENCE AND ITS EFFECT ON SUCCESSFUL AGING

Innovation in Aging ◽

10.1093/geroni/igz038.2641 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. S720-S721

Author(s):

Alexandria G Nuccio ◽

Ashely M Stripling

Keyword(s):

Successful Aging ◽

Protective Factor ◽

Environmental Control ◽

Emotional Health ◽

Continuous Process ◽

Late Life ◽

Physical And Mental Health ◽

The Us ◽

Environmental Mastery ◽

Linear Regressions

Abstract Resilience is commonly recognized as a protective factor that increases an individual’s ability to adapt positively to adversity or change. Given the rates of change, which occur in mid and late life, understanding resilience within this population is of particular importance. Yet to date, the direct mechanisms through which resiliency functions remains underexplored in this population. As such, the current investigation seeks to examine the mechanism through which lifelong resiliency may affect the lives of older adults in order to promote successful aging. Data including assessments of lifelong resiliency (measured by an individual’s opinion that life has been a continuous process of learning/changing/growing), environmental mastery (Ryff, 1989), instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs), mood (e.g. depression and self-rated emotional health), and subjective physical health were derived from the Survey of Midlife in the US Database (MIDUS 3). Participants were primarily White/Caucasian (88.7%) and female (54.9%); with a mean age of 63.64 years (SD=11.35). A series of hierarchical multiple linear regressions revealed that resiliency predicted better physical (F=43.448,p<0.001) and emotional health (emotional health (F=46.515,p<0.001), depression (F=17.665,p<0.011)), as well as increased environmental control (IADLs (F=109.992,p<0.001), and Environmental Mastery (F=64.686,p<0.001)) in models adjusted for known correlates (i.e. age, sex, race, marital status, education). The present findings suggest that high levels of resilience increase not only perceptions of the world (subjective environmental mastery, physical and mental health) but also direct outcomes (IADLs). Implications of the current finding include elucidation of the concept of resiliency, as well as, recommendations for increasing resiliency in late life.

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Elderhood, Agency and Existential Vulnerability

Innovation in Aging ◽

10.1093/geroni/igab046.1917 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. 499-499

Author(s):

H E Laceulle

Keyword(s):

Old Age ◽

Personal Growth ◽

Successful Aging ◽

Late Life ◽

Feminist Philosophy ◽

Cultural Image ◽

The Face

Abstract Popular conceptualizations of elderhood often use a spiritually inspired language of personal growth and wisdom. These conceptualizations are rightly critical of the language of activity and productivity that abounds in dominant successful aging discourses. Instead, the emphasis is placed on embracing our diminishing strength and increasing dependence with an attitude of resignation and gracious acceptance. Problematically, however, this can reinforce the ageist cultural assumption that old age lacks agency. If the emerging discourse about elderhood is truly to serve as a more inspiring cultural image of late life, it requires a reconceptualization of agency in the face of existential vulnerabilities. This paper aims to present a possible philosophical outlook for such a reconceptualization. It will draw on sources from feminist philosophy to argue how confrontations with vulnerability need not be an obstacle, but rather inspire alternative conceptualizations of agency that are a welcome addition to gerontological thinking.

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Like A Dew Drop On A Lotus Leaf: Perceptions Of Aging Well In South Asian American Older Adults

Innovation in Aging ◽

10.1093/geroni/igab046.3617 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. 1019-1019

Author(s):

Mushira Khan ◽

Sheetal Shah ◽

Ajla Basic

Keyword(s):

South Asian ◽

Asian Americans ◽

Asian American ◽

Successful Aging ◽

Late Life ◽

Well Being ◽

South Asian Americans ◽

Holistic Understanding ◽

Aging Well ◽

Perceptions Of Aging

Abstract Past research has underscored four key themes prevalent in popular and scientific discourse on successful aging in North America – the emphasis on individual agency and control; continuing productive activity into old age; the value of independence in late life; and an ideal construction of permanent personhood, wherein the realities of mortality and decline are inadequately addressed (Lamb, 2014). Yet, the meanings attached to successful aging differ across cultures and are not very well-understood. The Perceptions of Aging Well in Diverse Populations study aims to acquire a holistic understanding of the attitudes and beliefs around aging well across cultures and to identify the similarities and differences in these perceptions within diverse racial and ethnic groups. This presentation highlights preliminary findings from in-depth, semi-structured qualitative interviews with South Asian Americans 50 years and older (n=19; 9 men, 10 women). Participants shared that a sense of inevitability and aging with “grace”, “dignity”, and “wisdom” were key components of successful aging. Maintaining good health, keeping a positive attitude, and remaining independent in later life appeared motivated primarily by a desire to remain connected to, but not necessarily “burden” adult children with caregiving responsibilities. Religious faith and spiritual well-being, availability of support systems, and a sense of community were key facilitators. Limited English proficiency and loneliness posed challenges to aging well, particularly in late-life immigrants. These findings provide unique insights into subjective perceptions of successful aging and may help inform programs and policies that support the health and well-being of older South Asian Americans.

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Successful Aging: History and Prospects

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Psychology ◽

10.1093/acrefore/9780190236557.013.342 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

John W. Rowe ◽

Dawn C. Carr

Keyword(s):

Race And Ethnicity ◽

Successful Aging ◽

Older Persons ◽

Late Life ◽

Well Being ◽

High Performing ◽

Disease States ◽

Gerontological Research ◽

The 1960S ◽

Better Than

While the factors that influence the well-being of individuals in late life have long been a major concern of research in aging, they have been a particularly active area of research and debate since the 1980s and continue to have a prominent role in gerontological research and debate. Early research on aging (from the 1920s to the 1960s) focused largely on examining typical problems that come with aging. The term successful aging was initially used to describe those who aged better than expected. In the 1980s, the MacArthur Network on Successful Aging, concerned that the field of gerontology had become preoccupied with disease and disability to the neglect of studies of the factors that fostered doing well in late life, conducted a series of studies of high-performing older persons and formulated the MacArthur theory of successful aging, which included three principal components: avoidance of disease, maintenance of physical and cognitive function, and engagement with society. Since its initial publication, the concept of successful aging has been applied to many subpopulations of older persons based on geography (East vs. West), socioeconomic status, race and ethnicity, religion, cognitive or physical function, and disease states.

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