Residential Normalcy and the Enriched Coping Repertoires of Successfully Aging Older Adults

Overview

Journal Gerontologist

Publisher Oxford University Press

Specialty Geriatrics

Date 2014 May 21

PMID 24840917

Citations 14

Authors

Stephen M Golant

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

An earlier theoretical model equated the construct of residential normalcy with older persons positively appraising their residential environments. Failing to achieve congruent places to live, they initiate assimilative (action) or accommodative (mind) coping strategies. This paper theorizes that the assimilative coping strategies of older persons depend on their secondary appraisal processes whereby they judge the availability, efficaciousness, and viability of their coping options. Older persons with more enriched coping repertoires are theorized as more resilient, making their own decisions, and with access to more resource-rich objectively defined resilient environments. Successful aging formulations infrequently examine how residential environmental adaptations of people influence the quality of their lives. Programmatically, the theory emphasizes the potential of individual and environmental interventions targeting older persons who are not aging successfully.

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