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Resilience in Aging: Moving Through Challenge to Wisdom

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Abstract

Individuals at older ages have had many opportunities to develop resilience through challenges and adverse events across the life course. Do they all develop their capacity for resilience, or do some more vulnerable older adults “break” emotionally or mentally with the passage of time? Can one intentionally develop this capacity? In this chapter I discuss the meaning of resilience in aging and posit a practice-based definition. I also present a strengths-based perspective of aging well and positive aging, enhanced by the life course perspective. I address the unique capacity of intergenerational relations to build resilience in families. Empirical support for biopsychosocial emotional and spiritual factors that promote resilient outcomes is explored. A resilient approach also can be carried through the end of life, when attention may turn to death preparation. Finally, I present narrative gerontology and metaphor as models for assessing and expressing resilience in practice.

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  1. School of Social Work, Loyola University Chicago, 820 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA

    Holly Nelson-Becker PhD, LCSW.

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  1. Holly Nelson-Becker PhD, LCSW.
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Correspondence to Holly Nelson-Becker PhD, LCSW. .

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  1. , School of Social Work, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, 63105, USA

    Dorothy S. Becvar

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Nelson-Becker, H. (2013). Resilience in Aging: Moving Through Challenge to Wisdom. In: Becvar, D. (eds) Handbook of Family Resilience. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3917-2_20

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