WELL-BEING IN LATER LIFE: A LIFE COURSE PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

This research aims to identify factors that promote successful aging intending to overcome poor well-being in later life in the context of a rapidly aging society. Because investigators advocating the successful aging perspective for understanding well-being in later life have had limited theoretical and methodological tools, this study reports the results of a study using a viable framework for studying the factors that promote successful aging and well-being. A systematic literature review is used alongside philosophical discussions and comparative analyses of important research to illustrate how researchers can use the increasingly popular Life Course Paradigm (LCP) to develop research propositions within a viable research framework. Then, an interview-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data. A final sample size of 804 Thai participants aged more than 45 years old is used for data analyses. Both partial correlation and multiple linear regression were performed to test the hypotheses and research framework. This study suggests that both subjective and objective domains of well-being in later life are the outcomes of adaptation processes over the entire lifespan resulting from early life experiences as well as early developmental factors. The contextual factors including individual traits, time and timing, human-agency related factors, and structural factors have significant effects on early life experiences, adaptation processes, and well-being domains. The study findings support the application of LCP. By applying the principles and theoretical perspectives of LCP, researchers can investigate consumer well-being in later life as well as a wide variety of consumer behaviors at any stage in life, such as behaviors relevant to financial savings and preventive healthcare. The LCP is offered as a viable research blueprint which can be used by researchers to develop research propositions. Implications for theory and practice in marketing, consumer education, and public policy are discussed, and a research agenda is presented in the form of conceptual directions for innovatively studying various market phenomena.