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Successful aging and its discontents: a systematic review of the social gerontology literature
- Authors:
- MARTINSON Marty, BERRIDGE Clara
- Journal article citation:
- Gerontologist, 55(1), 2015, pp.58-69.
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
Purpose of the Study: The purpose of this study was to analyse the range of critiques of successful ageing models and the suggestions for improvement as expressed in the social gerontology literature. Design and Methods: The authors conducted a systematic literature review using the following criteria: journal articles retrieved in the Abstracts in Social Gerontology, published 1987–2013, successful aging/ageing in the title or text (n = 453), a critique of successful ageing models as a key component of the article. Sixty-seven articles met the criteria. Qualitative methods were used to identify key themes and inductively configure meanings across the range of critiques. Results: The critiques and remedies fell into 4 categories. The Add and Stir group suggested a multidimensional expansion of successful ageing criteria and offered an array of additions. The Missing Voices group advocated for adding older adults’ subjective meanings of successful ageing to established objective measures. The Hard Hitting Critiques group called for more just and inclusive frameworks that embrace diversity, avoid stigma and discrimination, and intervene at structural contexts of ageing. The New Frames and Names group presented alternative ideal models often grounded in Eastern philosophies. Implications: The vast array of criteria that gerontologists collectively offered to expand Rowe and Kahn’s original successful model is symptomatic of the problem that a normative model is by definition exclusionary. Greater reflexivity about gerontology’s use of “successful ageing” and other normative models is needed. (Edited publisher abstract)