EVERYDAY FUNCTIONING AND SUCCESSFUL AGING - THE IMPACT OF RESOURCES

The goal of this article is to examine differential aging in everyday functioning between resource-rich and resource-poor older adults. Four groups of older adults were identified on the basis of 2 distinct res ource factors: a Sensorimotor-Cognitive factor and a Social-Personalit y factor. The resource-richest group consisted of those participants w ho were above the median in both factors; those falling below the medi an in both factors comprised the resource-poorest group; and 2 additio nal groups consisted of older adults who were above the median in eith er 1 of the 2 factors. At the level of mean differences, the 4 groups differed in the length of the waking day, the variability in activitie s, the frequency of intellectual-cultural and social-relational activi ties, and resting times. Considering age differences there are more an d larger negative age effects in the resource-poorest group than in th e resource-richest one. The metamodel of selective optimization with c ompensation is used to interpret the findings.