Successful aging: paths for a construct and new frontiers
Year: 2008
Type: article
Abstract: This article focuses on different conceptions of successful aging, emphasizing the process of aging as a heterogeneous experience that implies different strategies for achieving wellbeing and quality of life. Studies valuing the aging process as part of the course of human life and the role of subjectivity and health self-perception, as key concepts for understanding wellbeing and health in old age, were selected. Data in the literature suggest that the experience of successful aging values elderly people's own perceptions: they are the protagonists of interventions and possess judgment about wellbeing and quality of life. Even in the presence of comorbidities and diminished functional ability, it is possible to identify elderly people who report high levels of satisfaction and good quality of life. We propose questions that seek to improve investigations and elaborate this construct within gerontology, bearing in mind the size and complexity of this topic.
Authors: Ângela Maria Machado de Lima, Henrique Salmazo da Silva, Ricardo Galhardoni, Carolina Silveira Muniz Ventura
Institution: Universidade de São Paulo
Language: English
Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1783297517