Invited Research ArticlesOlder Adults' Perspectives on Successful Aging: Qualitative Interviews
Section snippets
Participants
Individual interviews were conducted with a purposively selected sample of 22 independent living, community-dwelling adults older than 60 years who were able to sign an informed consent. To obtain maximum variation18 in perspectives and experience, recruitment occurred at four locations within San Diego County, CA. Eleven subjects were recruited from the independent living segments of two continuing care retirement communities that provide multiple levels of care to residents. An additional
RESULTS
The analysis of the personal interview transcripts revealed an emphasis by respondents to focus on the importance of accepting oneself, including the development of a realistic self-appraisal and a review of one's life. In addition, participants went beyond this sense of acceptance to also focus on the importance of active engagement with life and growth, including novel, productive, and social engagement and the value of a positive attitude. These constructs are further discussed in detail
DISCUSSION
Our qualitative study based on personal interviews was aimed at identifying older adults' perceptions about what constituted successful aging and what could be done to promote it. Two overarching, and seemingly opposing, themes were self-acceptance and engagement/self-growth. Acceptance was described in terms of a comfort with the self and one's past experiences along with a realistic self-appraisal. In contrast, engagement was described in terms of personal growth and the pursuit of active
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This work was supported, in part, by the National Institute of Mental Health grants T32MH019934-11, MH66248, MH59101, by the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging at the University of California, San Diego, CA.
Part of this work was presented at the annual conference of the Gerontological Society of America in National Harbor, MD, November 2008.