Abstract
This study fills the gap of literature review in the field of successful aging among non-Western older people. It identifies predictors of self-reported successful aging for living-alone older Chinese people with a relatively low socioeconomic status. Also, it records these respondents’ typical interpretations of the concept of successful aging in their own words. This study employed a single-item, subjective approach to enable elderly respondents to define their own successful aging. It made use of an open-ended question to collect respondents’ interpretations of the concept of successful aging. This study successfully interviewed, at home, 109 randomly selected older Chinese people living alone in two public housing estates. The response rate was 75.6%. Life satisfaction, sex, self-reported health status, satisfaction with living environment and major source of income were crucial predictors of these older Chinese people’s self-reported successful aging. The explanatory power was 50.9%. Several typical interpretations of the concept of successful aging obtained from these respondents were categorized into the following groups: (1) health-related issues, (2) financial issues, (3) personal issues, (4) family issues, (5) psychological issues, and (6) housing issues. Many of their interpretations were consistent with some of this study’s predictors. Living-alone, relatively deprived older Chinese respondents’ self-reported successful aging seems to focus more on subjective predictors than on objective ones. Their interpretations of the concept of successful aging are culturally and socio-economically oriented. These older people’s cognitive assessment of their successful aging is thus largely a personal experience of their daily lives.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anderson, N. N. (1967). Effects of institutionalization of self-esteem. Journal of Gerontology, 22, 313–317.
Baltes, P. B., & Baltes, M. M. (1990). Psychological perspectives on successful aging: The model of selective optimization with compensation. In P. B. Baltes & M. M. Baltes (Eds.), Successful aging: Perspective from the behavioral sciences (pp. 1–29). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Butler, R. N. (1985). Productive aging. New York: Springer.
Chi, I., & Lee, J. J. (1989). A health survey of the elderly in Hong Kong. Hong Kong: Department of Social Work and Social Administration, The University of Hong Kong.
Chi, I., & Boey, K. W. (1992). Validation of measuring instruments of mental health status of the elderly in Hong Kong. Hong Kong: Department of Social Work and Social Administration, The University of Hong Kong.
Chou, K. L., & Chi, I. (2002). Successful aging among the young-old, old-old, and oldest-old Chinese. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 54(1), 1–14.
Chung, S., & Park, S. J. (2008). Successful ageing among low-income older people in South Korea. Ageing and Society, 28(8), 1061–1074.
Collings, P. (2001). ‘If you got everything, it’s good enough’: perspectives on successful aging in a Canadian Inuit community. Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, 16, 127–155.
Cutler, N. E. (1982). Subjective age identification. In D. J. Mangen & W. A. Peterson (Eds.), Research instruments in social gerontology, vol. 1: Clinical and social psychology (pp. 437–461). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Featherman, D. L., Smith, J., & Peterson, J. G. (1990). Successful aging. In P. B. Baltes & M. M. Baltes (Eds.), Successful aging: Perspective from the behavioral sciences (pp. 50–93). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Fisher, B. J., Day, M., & Collier, C. E. (1998). Successful aging: Volunteerism and generativity in later life. In D. E. Redburn & R. P. McNamara (Eds.), Social gerontology (pp. 43–54). Westport: Alburn House.
Freund, A. M., & Riediger, M. A. (2003). Successful aging. In R. M. Lerner, M. A. Easterbrooks & J. Mistry (Eds.), Handbook of psychology, vol. 6: Developmental psychology (pp. 601–628). New York: Wiley.
Klein, W. C., & Bloom, M. (1997). Successful aging: Strategies for healthy living. New York: Plenum.
Lamb, V. L., & Myers, G. C. (1999). A comparative study of successful aging in three Asian countries. Population Research and Policy Review, 18(5), 433–450.
Lawton, M. P. (1983). Environmental and other determinants of well-being in older people. Gerontologist, 23, 349–357.
Lawton, M. P. (1989). Behavior-relevant ecological factors. In K. W. Schaie & C. Scholar (Eds.), Social structure and aging: Psychological processes (pp. 57–78). Hilllsdale: Erilbaum.
Mangen, D. J., & Peterson, W. A. (Eds.) (1982). Research instruments in social gerontology, vol. 1: Clinical and social psychology. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Mason, E. P. (1954). Some correlates of self-judgments of the aged. Journal of Gerontology, 9, 324–337.
Morgan, L., & Kunkel, S. (1998). Aging: The social context. Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge.
Neugarten, B. L., Havighurst, R. J., & Tobin, S. S. (1961). The measurement of life satisfaction. Journal of Gerontology, 16, 134–143.
Neuhaus, R. H., & Neuhaus, R. H. (1982). Successful aging. Lanham: University Press of America.
Nussbaum, J. F., Pecchioni, L. L., Robinson, J. D., & Thompson, T. L. (2000). Communication and aging (2nd ed.). Mahwah: Erlbaum.
Palmore, E. B. (2002). Successful aging. In D. J. Ekerdt (Ed.), Encyclopedia of aging (pp. 1375–1377). New York: Macmillan Reference USA.
Radloff, L. S. (1977). The CES-D scale: a self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Journal of Applied Psychological Measurement, 1, 385–401.
Radloff, L. S. (1991). Center for epidemiologic studies depression scale. In J. P. Robinson, P. R. Shaver & L. S. Wrightsman (Eds.), Measures of personality and social psychological attitudes (Vol. 1, in Measures of social psychological attitudes series) (pp. 212–215). San Diego: Academic.
Roff, L. L., & Atherton, C. R. (1989). Promoting successful aging. Chicago: Nelson-Hall.
Rosenberg, M. (1965). Society and the adolescent self-image. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Rowe, J. W., & Kahn, R. L. (1997). Successful aging. The Gerontologist, 37(4), 433–440.
Rowe, J. W., & Kahn, R. L. (1998). Successful aging. New York: Pantheon/Random House.
Steverink, N., Lndenberg, S., & Ormel, J. (2000). Towards understanding successful ageing: patterned change in resources and goal. Ageing and Society, 18, 441–467.
Tate, R. B., Lah, L., & Cuddy, T. E. (2003). Definition of successful aging by elderly Canadian males: the Manitoba follow-up study. The Gerontologist, 43(5), 735–744.
Vaillant, G. E., & Mukamal, K. (2001). Successful aging. American Journal of Psychiatry, 158, 839–847.
Ward, R. A. (1977). The impact of subjective age and stigma on older persons. Journal of Gerontology, 32, 227–232.
Wood, V., Wylie, W. L., & Sheafor, B. (1969). An analysis of a short self-report measure of life satisfaction: Correlation with rater judgments. Journal of Gerontology, 24, 465–469.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lee, JJ. A Pilot Study on the Living-Alone, Socio-Economically Deprived Older Chinese People’s Self-Reported Successful Aging: A Case of Hongkong. Applied Research Quality Life 4, 347–363 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-009-9085-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-009-9085-7