What Predicts Older Adults’ Adjustment to Aging in Later Life? The Impact of Sense of Coherence, Subjective Well-Being, and Sociodemographic, Lifestyle, and Health-Related Factors

Abstract

The aim of this study was to build a structural model to explore the predictors of adjustment to aging (AtA) in a community-dwelling older population. A community-dwelling sample of 1,270 older adults aged between 75 and 102 years answered a questionnaire to determine sociodemographic (sex, age, professional and marital status, education, household, adult children, family's annual income, living setting, and self-reported spirituality), lifestyle, and health-related characteristics (perceived health, recent disease, medication, and leisure). Several instruments were used to assert psychological variables, namely AtA, sense of coherence, and subjective well-being. Structural equation modeling was used to explore a structural model of the self-reported AtA, encompassing all variables. Significant predictors are self-reported spirituality (β = .816, p < .001); perceived health (β = .455, p < .001); leisure (β = .322, p < .001); professional status (β = .283, p < .001); income (β = .230, p = .035); household (β = –.208, p = .007); sense of coherence (β = −.202, p = .004); and adult children (β = .164, p = .011). The variables explain, respectively, 60.6% of the variability of AtA. Self-reported spirituality is the strongest predictor of AtA. Other predictors are perceived health, leisure, professional status, income, household, sense of coherence, and adult children. This study emphasizes the need for deepening the variables that influence older adults’ AtA—in particular, perceived health and further lifestyle-related characteristics—as being relevant for promoting aging well in later life, within a salutogenic context for health care.