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Life resources and personal goals in old age

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Abstract

It has been theorized that life resources influence goal engagement. The aim of the present study was to examine whether personal characteristics, and socio-economic, social and health resources are associated with personal goal content in old age. The participants were 824 community-dwelling people aged 75–90 from the Life-Space Mobility in Old Age project. Personal goals were elicited using a revised version of the Personal Project Analysis in a structured interview. Cross-sectional bi- and multivariate analyses using logistic regression modelling were conducted. The results showed that the most commonly reported goals were health maintenance related. People with better health resources were more likely to report goals related to leisure-time, social and physical activities and less likely to report goals related to recovery of health. Those with poor social resources were at risk for having no personal goals in their lives. The results are in line with theorizing on the influence of life resources on goal setting in old age. Further longitudinal studies are needed on whether resource loss precedes goal modification, and how goal setting strategies influence both mental and physical well-being in old age.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the University of Jyväskylä, the Academy of Finland (the Future of Living and Housing; Grant 255403 for the LISPE project; and personal Grant 285747 to MR) and the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health Sciences, Gerontology Research Center, University of Jyvaskyla, P.O. Box 35, 40014, Jyvaskyla, Finland

    Milla Saajanaho, Merja Rantakokko, Erja Portegijs, Timo Törmäkangas, Johanna Eronen, Li-Tang Tsai & Taina Rantanen

  2. Gerontology Research Center, School of Health Sciences, University of Tampere, 33014, Tampere, Finland

    Marja Jylhä

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  1. Milla Saajanaho
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  2. Merja Rantakokko
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Correspondence to Milla Saajanaho.

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The authors declare that there are no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

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Responsible editor: H.-W. Wahl.

Gerontology Research Center is a joint effort between the University of Jyvaskyla and the University of Tampere.

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Saajanaho, M., Rantakokko, M., Portegijs, E. et al. Life resources and personal goals in old age. Eur J Ageing 13, 195–208 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10433-016-0382-3

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