Abstract

NAVARRO, Ana B.  and  BUENO, Belén. Coping with health problems in very old people. Anal. Psicol. [online]. 2015, vol.31, n.3, pp.1008-1017. ISSN 1695-2294.  https://dx.doi.org/10.6018/analesps.31.3.172481.

This paper assesses the strategies for coping with health problems in advanced old age and their contribution in terms of several performance results. 159 people aged 75 or over and living at home identified their most recent health problem, the strategies used to deal with it, their perception of self-efficacy in handling the problem and their degree of satisfaction with life. The results confirm the use of a range of strategies, with the active-behavioural approach to solving the problem being the one most widely used. In addition, together with active coping strategies of both a cognitive and behavioural nature, correlational analyses indicate that very old people resort to passive and avoidance coping methods. Furthermore, multiple regression analyses highlight the fact that the use of direct and rational actions for solving health problems predicts self-efficacy in dealing with the problem and protects satisfaction with life at this stage. These results confirm that very old people retain the ability to deal effectively with their health problems and, at the same time, uphold their well-being, providing evidence of the adaptive role of coping in very old age.

Keywords : health problems; coping; advanced old age; resilience; ex post facto study.

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