Proactive Aging Among Holocaust Survivors: Striving for the Best Possible Life

Roni Elran-Barak, Adi Barak, Jacob Lomranz and Yael Benyamini

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 2018, vol. 73, issue 8, 1446-1456

Abstract: Objectives To investigate methods that older Holocaust survivors and their age peers use in order to maintain the best possible life and to examine associations between these methods and subjective well-being. Method Participants were 481 older Israelis (mean age 77.4 ± 6.7 years): Holocaust survivors (n = 164), postwar immigrants (n = 183), and prewar immigrants (n = 134). Measures included sociodemographics and indicators of health and well-being. Respondents were asked to answer an open-ended question: “What are the methods you use to maintain the best possible life?†. Answers were coded into eight categories. Results Holocaust survivors were significantly less likely to mention methods coded as “Enjoyment†(32.3%) relative to postwar (43.7%) and prewar (46.2%) immigrants and significantly more likely to mention methods coded as “Maintaining good health†(39.0%) relative to postwar (27.9%) and prewar (21.6%) immigrants. Controlling for sociodemographics and health status, Holocaust survivors still differed from their peers. Discussion Aging Holocaust survivors tended to focus on more essential/fundamental needs (e.g., health), whereas their peers tended to focus on a wider range of needs (e.g., enjoyment) in their effort to maintain the best possible life. Our findings may add to the proactivity model of successful aging by suggesting that aging individuals in Israel use both proactive (e.g., health) and cognitive (e.g., accepting the present) adaptation methods, regardless of their reported history during the war.

Keywords: Holocaust survivors; Open-ended question; Proactive aging; Successful aging (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbw136 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:geronb:v:73:y:2018:i:8:p:1446-1456.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B is currently edited by Psychological Sciences - S. Duke Han, PhD and Social Sciences - Jessica A Kelley, PhD, FGSA

More articles in The Journals of Gerontology: Series B from The Gerontological Society of America Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().