Successful aging as an oxymoron Older people – with and without home-help care – talk about what aging well means to them
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Notions of what it means to age well or successfully are central to social gerontological research and practice. As such, one would expect that there would be consensus as to what the construct of successful aging means and/or how aging well is achieved. This is not, however, the case which is why this study explores the meanings that a group of older people (i.e. some with home-help care and some without) attach to this construct. The empirical material is constituted of 16 semi-structured interviews. The findings bring to fore the different resources (such as physical, mental, psycho-social, spiritual, and financial ones) that are associated with successful aging and the kind of outlook on life that is regarded as useful if one wants to age well. Differences between home-help care recipients and those that do not receive this type of care were found. Those that are managing without the help offered by home-help care services listed more resources and offered more nuanced descriptions of what successful aging means than those that receive home- help care. This suggests that receiving home-help care and/or not being able to manage primarily on one’s own might shape the manner in which older people think about what constitutes a good old age. The in-depth analysis of the notions of successful aging that were brought to the fore suggests also the paradoxical fact that the title of this article attests to; namely that some associate aging well with not aging at all and deem, in fact, the term successful aging to be an oxymoron.
Metrics
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Since 2020 the International Journal of Ageing and Later Life uses a Creative Commons: Attribution license, which allows users to distribute the work and to reform or build upon it without the author's permission. Full reference to the author must be given.
References
Baltes, M. M. & Carstensen, L. L. (1996). The process of successful aging. Aging and Society 15: 397–422. [Read this article]
Baltes, P. B. & Baltes, M. M. (1990). Psychological perspectives on successful aging: The model of selective optimization with compensation. In P. B. Baltes & M. M. Baltes (eds.), Successful Aging: Perspectives from the Behavioral Sciences (pp. 1–34). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Bowling, A. (1993). The concept of successful and positive aging. Family Practice 10(4): 449–453. [Read this article] PMid:8168683
Charbonneau-Lyons, D. L., Mosher-Ashely, P. M. & Stanford-Pollock, M. (2002). Opinions of college students and independent-living adults regarding successful aging. Educational Gerontology 28: 823–833. [Read this article]
Cole, T. R. (1984). Aging, meaning and well-being: Musings of a cultural historian. International Journal of Aging and Human Development 19: 329–336. [Read this article]
Collings, P. (2001). ‘‘If you got everything, it’s good enough’’: Perspectives on successful aging in a Canadian Inuit community. Journal of Crosscultural Gerontology 16(2): 127–155. [Read this article]
Creswell, J. W. (1998). Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Traditions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Dannefer, D. (1987). Aging as intracohort differentiation: Accentuation, the Mathew effect, and the life course. Sociological Forum 2: 211–236. [Read this article]
Dorfman, R. & Walsh, K. (1996). Theoretical dimensions of successful aging. Journal of Aging and Identity, 1(3): 165–176.
Duay, D. & Bryan, V. (2006). Senior adults’ perceptions of successful aging. Educational Gerontology, 32(6): 423–445. [Read this article]
Fisher, B. J. (1992). Successful aging and life satisfaction: A pilot study for conceptual clarification. Journal of Aging Studies 6: 191–202. [Read this article]
Fisher, B. J. (1995). Successful aging, life satisfaction and generativity in later life. International Journal of Aging and Human Development 41: 239–250. [Read this article]
Fisher, B. J. & Specht, D. K. (1999). Successful aging and creativity in later life. Journal of Aging Studies 13(4): 457–472. [Read this article]
Ford, A. B., Haug, M. R., Stange, K. C., Gaines, A. D., Noelker, L. S. & Jones, P. K. (2000). Sustained personal autonomy: A measure of successful aging. Journal of Aging and Health 12(4): 470–489. [Read this article] PMid:11503728
Freund, A. M. & Baltes, P. B. (1998). Selection, optimization, and compensation as strategies for life management: Correlations with subjective indicators of successful aging. Psychology and Aging 13: 531–543. [Read this article] PMid:9883454
Hammarström, G. (2001). Hur bra är hemtjänsten i Uppsala. [How Good is Home-Help Care in Uppsala?]. Uppsala Kommun, Sweden: Uppsala Universitet, Sociologiska Institutionen.
Hammarström, G. (2002). Hemtjänsten behöver mera hjälp:Äldre hjälpmottagares erfarenheter av hemtjänsten [Home-help care services need more help: Older care recipients’ experiences of home-help care]. Socialmedicinsk Tidskrift 79(3): 271–284.
Hammarström, G. & Torres, S. (2005). Livssituation och förhållningssätt bland äldre i behov av hjälp och stöd [Life situation and approach to everyday life: A study of older people in need of help and support]. Socialvetenskaplig Tidskrift 12(4): 279–293.
Hammarström, G. & Torres, S. (2007). Beroende eller oberoende? En kvalitativ studie av hur äldre hjälptagare ser på att ha hjälp och stöd [Dependency or independence? A qualitative study of how older home-help recipients regard having help and support]. Sociologisk Forskning 1: 30–51.
Hammarström, G. & Torres, S. (2009). Being, feeling and acting: A qualitative study of Swedish home-help care recipients’ understandings of dependence and independence. Journal of Aging Studies. [Read this article] PMid:19649311 PMCid:2711636
Minkler, M. & Fadem, P. (2002). ‘‘Successful aging’’: A disability perspective. Journal of Disability Policy Studies 12(4): 229–235. [Read this article]
Pahl, R. (1995). After Success: Fin-de-sie´cle Anxiety and Identity. Cambridge, UK: Policy Press & Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
Phelan, E. A., Andersson, L. A., LaCroix, A. Z. & Larson, E. B. (2004). Older adults’ views of ‘successful aging’: How do they compare with researchers’ definitions? Journal of American Geriatric Society 52(2): 211–216. [Read this article] PMid:14728629
Rodeheaver, D. (1993). Psychological adaptation and virtue: Geropsychological perspectives on Cicero’s De Senectute. Journal of Aging Studies 7(4): 353–359. [Read this article]
Rowe, J. & Khan, R. (1987). Human aging: usual and successful. Science 237: 143–149. [Read this article] PMid:3299702
Rowe, J. & Khan, R. (1997). Successful aging. The Gerontologist 37: 433–440.
Rowe, J. & Khan, R. (1998). Successful Aging. New York: Random House.
Ruffing-Rahal, M. & Wallace, J. (2000). Successful aging in a wellness group for older women. Health Care for Women International 21: 267–275. [Read this article] PMid:11813774
Scheidt, R. J., Humphreys, D. R. & Yorgasson, J. B. (1999). Successful aging: What’s not to like? The Journal of Applied Gerontology 18: 277–282. [Read this article]
Seale, C. (1999). The Quality of Qualitative Research. London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: Sage.
Silverman, D. (2001). Interpreting Qualitative Data: Methods for Analyzing Talk, Text and Interaction (2nd ed). London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: Sage.
Stock, N. (1982). Historical perspective of gerontology in the United States. In Care Trust of Significant Works in Gerontology. Michigan, MI: University of Michigan Press.
Strawbridge, W. J., Wallhagen, M. I. & Cohen, R. D. (2002). Successful aging and well-being: Self rated compared with Rowe and Khan. The Gerontologist 42(6): 727–733.
Thomas, L. E. & Chambers, K. O. (1989). Successful aging among elderly men in England and India: A phenomenological comparison. In E. Thomas (ed.), Research on Adulthood and Aging: The Human Science Approach (pp. 183–203). New York: SUNY.
Tornstam, L. (1973). Att åldras: Socialgerontologiska Perspektiv [To age: Social Gerontological Perspectives]. PhD Thesis. Uppsala, Sweden: Department of Sociology, Uppsala University.
Tornstam, L. (2005). Åldrandets socialpsykologi [The Social Psychology of Aging] (7th ed.). Finland: Nordstedts Akademiska Förlag.
Torres, S. (1999). A culturally-relevant theoretical framework for the study of successful aging. Ageing and Society 19(1): 33–51. [Read this article]
Torres, S. (2001). Understandings of ‘Successful Aging’: Cultural and Migratory Perspectives. PhD Thesis. Uppsala, Sweden: Department of Sociology, Uppsala University.
Torres, S. (2003). A preliminary empirical test of a culturally-relevant theoretical framework for the study of successful aging. Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology 18: 73–91. [Read this article] PMid:14617959
Torres, S. (2004). Making sense of the construct of successful aging: The migrant experience. In S-O. Daatland & S. Biggs (eds.), Ageing and Diversity: Multiple Pathways and Cultural Migrations (pp. 125–139). Bristol, UK: Policy Press.
Torres, S. (2009). Vignette methodology and culture-relevance: Lessons learned through a project on successful aging with Iranian immigrants to Sweden. Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology 24(1): 93–114. [Read this article] PMid:19199017
Torres, S. & Hammarström, G. (2005). Old age references as discursive strategies. Paper presented at the 58th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, November 18–22 in Orlando, FL.
Torres, S. & Hammarström, G. (2006). Speaking of limitations while trying to disregard them: A qualitative study of how diminished everyday competence and aging can be regarded. Journal of Aging Studies 20(4): 291–302. [Read this article]
Torres, S. & Hammarström, G. (2007). Hög ålder som ohälsa och hot: äldre människors erfarenheter [Old age as disease and threat: older people’s experiences]. In L-E. Jönson & S. Lundin (eds.), Åldrandets betydelser [The Meanings of Aging] (pp. 53–76). Lund, Sweden: Studentlitteratur.
von Faber, M., van der Wiel, A. B., van Exel, E., Gussekloo, J., Lagaay, A. M., van Dogen, E., Knook, D. L., van der Geest, S. & Westendorp, R. G. J. (2001). Successful aging in the oldest old: Who can be characterized as successfully aged? Archives of Internal Medicine 161: 2694–2700. [Read this article]
Westerhof, G., Dittmann-Kohli, F. & Thissen, T. (2001). Beyond life satisfaction: Lay conceptions of well-being among middle-aged and elderly adults. Social Indicators Research 56: 179–203. [Read this article] PMid:11732934