ROBUST AGING AMONG THE YOUNG-OLD, OLD-OLD, AND OLDEST-OLD

This study defined and examined the interrelationships among four mult icategory definitions of robust aging: productive involvement, affecti ve status, functional status, and cognitive status. Data are from a sa mple of 1,644 adults aged 60 and older who participated in a nationwid e household survey in 1986. The four robust aging indicators were mini mally correlated, suggesting that they tap a multidimensional phenomen on. Several personal characteristics were found to distinguish robustl y aging individuals from their less-well-functioning counterparts for at least one robust aging criterion. The most robustly aging individua ls reported greater social contact, better health and vision, and fewe r significant life events in the past three years than their less robu stly aging counterparts. The data also indicated a linear age-related decrease in the proportion of respondents found in the most robust agi ng categories, but membership in the oldest-old cohort did not preclud e one from being identified as aging robustly.