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Resilency During Older Adulthood

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Encyclopedia of Primary Prevention and Health Promotion

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Introduction

Resilience theory is a multi-theoretical framework for understanding how people sustain, maintain, or achieve well-being despite adversity. It emphasizes strengths over problems and the interaction of the developing person with the social and physical environments. The resilience perspective applies to individuals, families, and communities. The study of resilience, or the ability of people to overcome adverse events, initially focused on children and youth and their capacity to remain competent in harmful environments. In recent years, the harmful effects of adversity across the life span and patterns of coping among older adults have begun receiving more attention, and a better understanding of resilience among older adults is emerging. Resilience in older people has been defined as adaptability characterized by flexibility (Staudinger, Marsiske, & Baltes, 1993) and being resilientas presenting better than average quality of life in spite of adverse life events...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Work University of Texas-Austin Emerita, Austin, TX, USA

    Roberta R. Greene

  2. Department of Social Work, College of Community and Public Affairs, Binghamton University, 67 Washington Street, Binghamton, NY, 13902-6000, USA

    Youjung Lee

  3. Department of Social Work, Texas Christian University, 298750, Fort Worth, TX, 76129, USA

    Harriet L. Cohen

Authors
  1. Roberta R. Greene
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  2. Youjung Lee
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  3. Harriet L. Cohen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Roberta R. Greene .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Child & Family Agency of Southeastern Connecticut, New London, CT, USA

    Thomas P. Gullotta

  2. University of Connecticut, West Hartford, USA

    Martin Bloom

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Greene, R.R., Lee, Y., Cohen, H.L. (2014). Resilency During Older Adulthood. In: Gullotta, T.P., Bloom, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Primary Prevention and Health Promotion. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5999-6_307

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5999-6_307

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-5998-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-5999-6

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