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There is ongoing debate over how to define successful aging. Historically, biomedical conceptualizations of older adulthood have prevailed. Recently, gerontologists have criticized the theory of successful aging, describing it as exclusive and overly emphasizing physical and functional capacities (Martinson & Berridge, 2015). In its place, scholars have recommended alternative frameworks such as resilience (Jeste et al., 2013) or holistic wellness (Strout et al., 2016), arguing that these frameworks are more responsive to the heterogeneity inherent among older persons. The purpose of our study was to compare the relative contributions of Rowe and Kahn’s definition of successful aging (SA), resilience, and the holistic wellness paradigm for predicting happiness, life satisfaction, and self-rated physical health. We sampled adults residing in independent living senior housing communities. We hypothesized that in each of three full regression models, holistic wellness and resilience would be significant predictors of happiness, life satisfaction, and physical health, whereas successful aging status would not be a significant predictor. In sum, the criteria underlying successful aging poorly predicted happiness, life satisfaction, and self-rated physical health compared to the resilience and holistic wellness models. When predicting happiness and life satisfaction, race and holistic wellness were significant predictors. Age and holistic wellness were the best predictors of self-rated physical health. The results suggest that definitions of aging well are complex and require greater nuance. The findings have important implications for clinicians seeking translatable theoretical models that are amenable to practice with older adults, especially for those living in independent senior housing communities.
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