What Does It Mean to Successfully Age?: Multinational Study of Older Adults' Perceptions.

Background And Objectives: Successful aging is a mainstay of the gerontological literature, but it is not without criticism, including the often-limited way that it is studied and measured as well as the exclusion of older adults' voices in its formulation and understanding. This study sought to address these issues through a qualitative investigation across multiple countries.

Research Design And Methods: This was a mixed-methods, cross-sectional, exploratory study using an online survey.

Goal setting in later life: an international comparison of older adults' defined goals.

Background: Studies of goal setting in later life tend to focus on health-related goal setting, are pre-determined by the researcher (i.e., tick box), and/or are focused on a specific geographical area (i.

Risk and Protective Factors of Loneliness among Older Adults: The Significance of Social Isolation and Quality and Type of Contact.

Loneliness has a significant impact on the health and well-being of older people, including an increased risk of mortality. This cross-sectional study explored possible risk and protective factors that can help explain loneliness and emotional and social loneliness in a sample of community-dwelling older adults ( = 477). The survey incorporated a standardized scale of loneliness and items to assess type and quality of contact with others, community support, social isolation, physical health, cognitive health, and functional ability.

What attributes of successful aging are important to older adults? The development of a multidimensional definition of successful aging.

Older adults' experiences and perspectives have been missing in the quest to develop a unified definition of successful aging. Through an online survey using convenience sampling, respondents ( = 477) were asked to report how important 25 specific attributes of successful aging, originating from published literature that examined successful aging from the perspective of older adults, were to them as they age. Over 90% of respondents reported 11 attributes as important or very important to them as they age, which included "remaining free of chronic diseases" and "feeling good about myself.

How Do Older Adults Define Successful Aging? A Scoping Review.

Successful aging is a prominent theory that describes the aging process and the expected activities and behaviors older adults should engage in or exhibit to age successfully. Although this theory is used to gauge the extent to which older adults are aging successfully, older adults' experiences and perspectives of what successful aging means to them are missing from the theory. A five-step scoping review framework was used to explore and synthesize the existing research that investigated older adults' perspectives on successful aging.

How stereotypes and attitudes toward older adults are challenged through intergenerational contact: Young people explain the process.

There is a growing body of evidence on the effectiveness of intergenerational contact in challenging stereotypes and attitudes, particularly when applying the four conditions of Allport's contact hypothesis. Despite this, little is known of how change actually occurs, particularly among young people. Individual interviews with twelve young people (age 11-12 years) were conducted to determine the extent and process by which their stereotypes and attitudes toward older adults (aged 65+) changed through intergenerational contact based on the contact hypothesis.

Why do I dread looking old?: A test of social identity theory, terror management theory, and the double standard of aging.

Outward appearance is one of the means by which age is determined, and fear of looking old may stem from fears about social identity and death. This study explored how social identity theory and terror management theory may help to explain the dread of looking old. University students from the United States, England, and Australia (N = 1,042) completed a questionnaire regarding their attitudes about aging and older adults.

Stereotypes and attitudes toward older people among children transitioning from middle childhood into adolescence: Time matters.

Ageism is fueled by stereotypes and negative attitudes about aging and older adults, which can lead to individual-level prejudice and discrimination. Through survey methodology, this study explored stereotypes and ageist beliefs of youth transitioning from middle childhood into adolescence (age 11-13 years) (N = 69) in the southwest of England. The results indicate that positive more than negative stereotypes were acknowledged, and more positive stereotyping was positively correlated with more positive attitudes toward older adults.

Key processes, ingredients and components of successful systems collaboration: working with severely emotionally or behaviorally disturbed children and their families.

Systems collaboration has repeatedly been cited as a component of successful social service delivery. Through qualitative data, this study explored the process involved in inter-agency collaboration when providing Integrative Family and Systems Treatment (I-FAST) for families with severely emotionally or behaviorally disturbed children. Data were collected through a series of eight focus groups with 26 agency collaborators across 11 counties in Ohio.

Exploring smoking prevalence, quit attempts, and readiness to quit cigarette use among women in substance abuse treatment.

Client questionnaires from 38 gender-specific substance abuse facilities throughout Ohio were analyzed to explore smoking prevalence, quit attempts, and readiness to quit cigarette use. The analysis revealed 79.7% of women used cigarettes at the time of the survey, 33.