A multidimensional approach to the resilience in older adults despite COVID-19

Abstract

Researchers have mainly focused on aging risk factors and COVID-19 consequences. However, older adults have proved their ability to overcome adversities along their life. Resilience is a protective variable that dampens the impact of stress. Based on MacLeod’s et al. (2016) approach, we aimed to analyze the relationship between older adults’ resilience and COVID-19 related-stressors as well as their physical, mental, and social characteristics. Eight hundred eighty-nine people aged 60 and over participated in this study. Older participants, women, having better perceived health and not losing a loved one because of the virus were associated with more resilience. Moreover, higher levels of gratitude, personal growth, life purpose and lower levels of depression were associated with greater scores in resilience. This study offers a change of perspective in which aging is perceived from a positive viewpoint by focusing on easily accessible resources that may help older adults to cope with adverse situations.

Resilience in Older People: A Concept Analysis

“…The etiologic events and characteristics, described as conceptual antecedents, were mediated by older people: higher education and income and having a partner [11,[21][22][23][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][41][42][43][44][45][46][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][62][63][64]66,67,[69][70][71][72][73][75][76]…”

“…Different definitions of resilience were found and analyzed according to attributes, namely: Ecological construct [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]; Dynamic process of the lifecycle [31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40]; Protective factors [41][42][43][44][45][46][47] Positive perspective [31,35,40,42,[48][49][50][51][52][53][54]; Multidimensional [40,42,[55][56][57][58][59][60][61]; Adaptation [51,56,[62]…”

“…A total of eight antecedents were found in the literature. They are sociodemographic characteristics [11,[21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][41][42][43][44][45][46][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][62][63][64]66,67,[69][70][71][72][73][75][76][77][78]…”

“…,50,53,54,59,67-69,79,80,82,88,95,96,100,126]; positive perspective and experience of ageing (active aging; independence and autonomy; values socialization; personal behaior)[11,21,22,25,26,29,31,34,39,40,44,45,[47][48][49][50]60,61,63,64,69,70,73,75,78,81,82,85,86,88,95,97,100,101,103,104,[106][107][108][109]111,112,116,121,[127][128][129]; grief and loss experience[42,43,51,…”

Situación físico-emocional de los hombres y las mujeres mayores durante la pandemia: influencia del falle-cimiento de personas próximas a ellos por covid-19 (The physical-emotional situation of older men and women during the pandemic: influence of death of people close to them by covid-19)

“…Recientemente, se ha investigado la gratitud como predictor de la integridad del yo y la adaptación a factores estresantes relacionados con el envejecimiento (Melendez et al, 2023). El modelo de bienestar psicológico positivo sugiere que la gratitud influye en la percepción del estrés (Wood et al, 2010;Yildirim & Alanazi, 2018), y se ha observado que las personas mayores muestran una mayor resiliencia en tiempos de COVID-19 cuando experimentan un mayor sentimiento de gratitud (Perez-Rojo et al, 2022). Sin embargo, estudios previos a la pandemia han indicado que los hombres tienden a experimentar menores niveles de gratitud (Kashdan et al, 2009).…”