Wellbeing in older adults: research on determinants of successful ageing

Research on successful ageing showed that there are individual differences in becoming old . Personality, individual attribution of meaning, the way older adults are confronted and cope with stressful life events, can explain differences in the way people organise their post-labour lives. Although in a number of occasions older people are confronted with losses, such as pensioning, empty nest, loss of status, widowhood, losses of social relations, increase of income or physical problems, only a minority of them seems to have problems coping with these. In our research project we want to 1) examine the degree of wellbeing of older adults, 2) determine the differences in wellbeing and 3) detect variables that could explain those differences.Therefore an exploratory study will be carried out, including 500 older adults. Two validated instruments will be used to assess the depend variable (wellbeing): ACSA and MOS. Apart from demographic characteristics, we will include questionnaires concerning resources older adults use in order to give meaning to their post-labour life, the way they cope with stressful life events, their perception on having (locus of)control on the situation and the extension of their social network.