Impact of Resources on Successful Adaptation among the Oldest Old

Abstract

ABSTRACT This chapter analyzes the influences of resources on Georgia centenarians' well-being, considering social interactions, caregiving services, and economic resource adequacy in context of other resources and constraints such as personality, cognitive ability, and functional limitations. We compare the well-being effects of proximal resources to those for distal resources and major life events. Both subjective (hedonic) and psychological (eudaimonia) well-being are analyzed. Subjective mental health is primarily related to perceived economic resources that are associated with distal resource indicators (education, ethnicity) so that centenarians can maintain a positive mental outlook despite functional limitations because their resources buffer economic anxiety. Their social interactions enhance the social provisions dimension of subjective well-being. However neither social nor economic resource adequacy influences the autonomy and growth aspects of psychological well-being, whereas personality resources are critical for that kind of adaptation. INTRODUCTION Previous research on the social and economic resources of centenarians and other very old individuals has demonstrated that oldest-old adults manage to maintain a fair to good level of well-being despite deficits in their functional health, cognition, and the threat of depleting personal economic resources as a result of extreme longevity (Pinquart & Sorenson, 2000); see Chapter 3 for further discussion of evidence that subjective well-being does not necessarily decrease in extreme age.