What does resilience mean to successful aging?

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In addition to depression, resilience is another aspect of mental health functioning that is closely associated with successful aging. Resilience is conceptualized as an internal psychological resource or the ability to bounce back from the variety of challenges that can arise in life. It is theorized as comprising the characteristics of equanimity (i.e., a balanced perspective of life), meaningfulness (i.e., a sense of purpose in life), perseverance, existential aloneness (i.e., recognizing one’s unique path and accepting one’s life), and self-reliance. Across cohorts of different ages and disorders, resilience has been found to be a buffering factor that protects against psychological distress. In a large, community-based study of self-rated successful aging, the positive effect of resilience on successful aging was comparable to that of physical health. This suggests that increasing resilience may be as effective as physical health regarding facilitating successful aging. Similarly, higher levels of resilience have also been reported to protect against the negative influence of new medical disorders in older adults. Not only does resilience protect against declines in physical health, there is some evidence to suggest that high levels of resilience contribute to longevity; in fact, centenarians have been shown to be more resilient than any other age group.