Abstract
Although embraced as desirable by most, living into very old age is largely unexplored as a distinct season of life, with increased, varied, and cumulative changes during a unique time of vulnerability and frailty. The purpose of this study was to listen to the oldest-old, and to explore their lived experience of growing old. This hermeneutic phenomenology study examines the experience of finding meaning and living with losses and gains in advanced old age.
This study design included three separate interviews one month apart with participants over 85 years of age. Purposive sampling resulted in 13 participants, 5 being male and 8 female, from 87 to 100 years of age with 8 being Caucasian, 3 Hispanic, and 2 African-American. Semi-structured interviews included topics of life history, daily habits, and experiences of loss and gain in oldest-old age. Verbatim transcriptions of recorded face-to-face interviews, field notes, and observations, were used as meaningful text and analyzed using interpretive thematic analysis methods.
Sigma Membership
Non-member
Type
Dissertation
Format Type
Text-based Document
Study Design/Type
Phenomenology
Research Approach
Qualitative Research
Keywords:
Growing Older, Elderly Adults, Loss, Well-Being, Aging Experience
Advisor
Betty W. Winslow
Second Advisor
Patricia S. Jones
Third Advisor
Lana M. Kanacki
Degree
PhD
Degree Grantor
Loma Linda University
Degree Year
2015
Recommended Citation
Pusztai, Julia A., "The lived experience of aging: Listening to the oldest-old" (2022). Dissertations. 922.
https://www.sigmarepository.org/dissertations/922
Rights Holder
All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.
All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.
All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.
Review Type
None: Degree-based Submission
Acquisition
Proxy-submission
Date of Issue
2022-02-28
Full Text of Presentation
wf_yes
Description
This dissertation has also been disseminated through the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. Dissertation/thesis number: 10032328; ProQuest document ID: 1774427646. The author still retains copyright.