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Motivational Antecedents of Preventive Proactivity in Late Life: Linking Future Orientation and Exercise

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This paper reviews a comprehensive, proactivity-based model of successful aging (E. Kahana & B. Kahana, 2003). Future orientation is considered as a motivational antecedent of late-life proactivity. In a panel study of 453 old-old adults, we linked future orientation to exercise, a key component of late-life proactivity. Findings based on hierarchical linear modeling reveal that future orientation at baseline predicts changes in exercise during the subsequent four years. Whereas exercise behavior generally declined over time, future orientation and female gender were associated with smaller decline. These results suggest that future-oriented thinking has a lasting impact on health promotion behavior. Future orientation thus represents a dispositional antecedent of preventive proactivity as proposed in our successful aging model.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

    Eva Kahana

  2. Department of Psychology, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

    Boaz Kahana

  3. Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

    Jianping Zhang

  4. Department of Sociology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, 44106-7124, USA

    Eva Kahana

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  1. Eva Kahana
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  2. Boaz Kahana
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  3. Jianping Zhang
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Correspondence to Eva Kahana.

Additional information

This research was made possible by National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Aging Merit Award AG10738. The authors wish to thank Dr. Jane Brown for helpful comments on an earlier draft of the manuscript.

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Kahana, E., Kahana, B. & Zhang, J. Motivational Antecedents of Preventive Proactivity in Late Life: Linking Future Orientation and Exercise. Motiv Emot 29, 438–459 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-006-9012-2

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