Successful aging and subjective well-being among oldest-old adults

This research integrates successful aging and developmental adaptation models to empirically define the direct and indirect effects of 2 distal (i.e., education and past life experiences) and 5 proximal influences (i.e., physical functioning, cognitive functioning, physical health impairment, social resources, and perceived economic status) on subjective well-being. The proximal influences involved predictors outlined in most extant models of successful aging (e.g., Rowe & Kahn, 1998 [Rowe, J. W., & Kahn, R. L. (1998). Successful aging. New York: Pantheon Books.]). Our model extends such models by including distal impact as well as interactions between distal and proximal impacts.

Data were obtained from 234 centenarians and 72 octogenarians in the Georgia Centenarian Study. Structural equation modeling was conducted with Mplus 6.1.

Results showed significant direct effects of physical health impairment and social resources on positive aspects of subjective well-being among oldest-old adults. We also found significant indirect effects of cognitive functioning and education on positive affect among oldest-old adults. Social resources mediated the relationship between cognitive functioning and positive affect; and cognitive functioning and social resources mediated the relationship between education and positive affect. In addition, physical health impairment mediated the relationship between cognitive functioning and positive affect; and cognitive functioning and physical health impairment mediated the relationship between education and positive affect.

Integrating 2 different models (i.e., successful aging and developmental adaptation) provided a comprehensive view of adaptation from a developmental perspective.