TY - JOUR
T1 - Sense of coherence changes with aging over the second half of life
AU - Silverstein, Merril
AU - Heap, Josephine
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 Elsevier Ltd.
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - Sense of coherence (SOC), a concept reflecting meaningfulness, comprehensibility, and manageability of life, has been demonstrated to have strong connections to positive outcomes such as good health. However, less is known about how SOC changes over the second half of life as age-related deficits accumulate. We used longitudinal samples of mature adults that included the oldest-old to track change in SOC from age 55 to 101. Growth curves using an accelerated longitudinal design were estimated for 1809 individuals who contributed 4072 observations from five national Swedish surveys between 1991 and 2010/11. Results indicated that deficits in health and social resources were largely responsible for the precipitous decline in SOC after age 70. When controlling for these deficits, SOC increased continuously into advanced old age. We conclude that the capacity to comprehend, manage, and find meaning in life-the component elements of SOC-strengthens over the last years of life, suggesting a positive ontogenic development that runs parallel but opposite to the negative impact of health and social decline.
AB - Sense of coherence (SOC), a concept reflecting meaningfulness, comprehensibility, and manageability of life, has been demonstrated to have strong connections to positive outcomes such as good health. However, less is known about how SOC changes over the second half of life as age-related deficits accumulate. We used longitudinal samples of mature adults that included the oldest-old to track change in SOC from age 55 to 101. Growth curves using an accelerated longitudinal design were estimated for 1809 individuals who contributed 4072 observations from five national Swedish surveys between 1991 and 2010/11. Results indicated that deficits in health and social resources were largely responsible for the precipitous decline in SOC after age 70. When controlling for these deficits, SOC increased continuously into advanced old age. We conclude that the capacity to comprehend, manage, and find meaning in life-the component elements of SOC-strengthens over the last years of life, suggesting a positive ontogenic development that runs parallel but opposite to the negative impact of health and social decline.
KW - Aging
KW - Life span development
KW - Meaningfulness
KW - Psycho-social change
KW - Sense of coherence
KW - Trajectory analysis
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U2 - 10.1016/j.alcr.2014.12.002
DO - 10.1016/j.alcr.2014.12.002
M3 - Article
C2 - 26047844
AN - SCOPUS:84963805302
SN - 1569-4909
VL - 23
SP - 98
EP - 107
JO - Advances in Life Course Research
JF - Advances in Life Course Research
ER -