title: Creativity enhancement: possibilities for successful aging.
abstract: Successful aging is of growing importance in the U.S. Many researchers have explored the phenomenon using various approaches, yet we are still lacking practical guidelines on how to promote successful aging in older adults. The Roy Adaptation Model supports the promotion of adaptation to chronic health problems at a time when one's overall health may be declining and is a useful guide for understanding successful aging. Current literature also suggests that functional performance and creativity are important in order to age successfully. This study examined the relationships between functional performance, creativity, and successful aging within the context of the Roy Adaptation Model. Although creativity was not significantly predictive of successful aging, functional performance was a statistically significant predictor of a successful aging indicator, purpose in life. The study was a pretest-posttest experimental design investigating the effects of a creativity enhancement intervention in older adults. Although the intervention did not appear to increase creativity or successful aging, there were some statistically significant results and valuable findings about the possibilities for creativity enhancement.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family and Community Health Nursing, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, North Carolina 28223-0001, USA. mflood@uncc.edu
authors.forename: Meredith
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Flood
authors.forename: Kathleen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Scharer
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living / Q000145:classification; D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000451:nursing / Q000523:psychology; D015400:Clinical Nursing Research; D003152:Community Health Nursing; D003405:Creativity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016294:Models, Nursing; D024802:Nurse's Role / Q000523:psychology*; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D012803:Sick Role; D013022:South Carolina