The coping, appraisal, and resilience in aging (CARA) model: Longitudinal findings from the Normative Aging Study

Resilience is central to understanding how individuals withstand the adverse effects of stress, but there is no generally agreed-upon definition of what constitutes resilience in later life. The present study tests the coping, appraisal, and resilience in aging model, which posits that resilient older adults, when faced with a problem, can draw upon their lifelong experience to minimize coping effort to conserve resources but still maintain a sense of coping efficacy (perceptions of how well they had handled the specific problem). We assessed coping effort and efficacy in 896 men in the Veterans' Affairs Normative Aging Study (Mage in 1993 = 64.46, SD = 6.6, range = 50-89) who were followed for 24 years (1993-2016), providing 3,459 observations. Multilevel modeling showed that coping effort decreased significantly, but coping efficacy showed only modest decreases with age. Group-based multitrajectory models indicated three groups. Struggling Copers (22.4%) had low, stable coping effort and efficacy. Modest Decliners (36.9%) had moderate levels of coping effort and high efficacy, both of which decreased with age. Optimal Copers (40.7%) had initially high coping effort, which declined more steeply, and stable, high coping efficacy. Struggling Copers were highest on neuroticism and pessimism at baseline, while Modest Decliners were lowest on neuroticism and highest on extraversion. The complex pattern of results suggested that both resource conservation and decreasing perceived control models were applicable, but to different subgroups. Nonetheless, nearly 80% of the sample were able to sustain high levels of coping efficacy, indicating good resilience in later life. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).