Psychological Resources for Well-Being Among Octogenarians, Nonagenarians, and Centenarians: Differential Effects of Age and Selective Mortality

Research on the young old indicates that psychological processes associated with the maintenance of subjective well-being are effective despite declining health and age-related social losses. In this chapter, we examine the robustness of this system in the oldest old. We divided the first wave cross-sectional sample of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Study (CLHLS) into two subsamples: 2-year survivors (N= 4,006) and 2-year drop-outs (N= 4,799). Psychological resources for well-being were measured by seven items (5-point response scale). Selectivity analyses and multiple regression analyses were conducted. Despite constraints in objective life conditions, long-lived individuals showed reasonably high levels of psychological resources for well-being. Age-cohort differences were small. Selective mortality and individual differences in life-history and life-context factors accounted for substantial amounts of variance. Individual differences were primarily associated with engagement in life, cognitive functioning, and health. The efficacy of this psychological system is vulnerable to losses and is associated with survival in the oldest old.