Between Modernization and Tradition: How does Culture Shape Older Taiwanese Women’s Perceptions of Successful Aging?

The purpose of this study was to understand how Taiwan’s culture context shapes the definitions of successful aging of older women. By interviewing 14 older Taiwanese women who aged over 60 and regularly volunteered for at least two years, the findings supported that successful aging was culturally constructed. Introductions The fast aging of the world’s population is a challenging fact in the 21st century. There are more healthy seniors than ever before. To age successfully is a need for everyone and successful aging has become “a guiding theme in gerontological research and a challenge for the design of social policy” (P. B. Baltes & Baltes, 1990, p. 4). Besides reducing risks of diseases and disability, successful aging also means better development and adaptation to old age. The explorations of successful aging have supplemented and enriched the significant understanding of late adulthood. To date, related studies mainly focus on definitions, exploring determinants, such as health, theory-building (Crowther et al., 2002; Rowe & Kahn, 1987, 1997). Just recently, few researchers tried to understand the definitions of successful aging from different age groups and cultures (Chou & Chi, 2002; Lamb & Myers, 1999; Torres, 1999, 2003). Frequently-cited adult development theories have been dominantly focused on the stages before age 65. It has been only since the 1980s that researchers have started noticing and building women-specific development models. Among those models, older women have almost been invisible. Since the 1960s, successful aging has become an academic term. In 1987, Rowe and Kahn first proposed the differences between usual aging and successful aging. Currently, related studies mainly adopt or modify the two often-cited definitions of successful aging proposed respectively by Rowe and Kahn (1997) as “low probability of disease and diseaserelated disability, high cognitive and physical functional capacity, and active engagement with life” (p. 433) and by P. B. Baltes and M. M. Baltes (1990) as “minimisation of losses and maximisation of gains” (M. M. Baltes & Carstensen, 1996, p. 405) in old age. While our world is increasingly diverse and aging is as fast growing a phenomenon in Asia as in the West, most aging related studies have been mainly based on Western viewpoints with Western populations. Because successful aging is a social and cultural construction (Torres, 1999, 2003), it is likely that different values and cultures might result in different concepts of successful aging. Thus, there is a need to hear from the East, especially Asia and the Pacific region, with the most rapidly aging population in the world and will become home to the largest proportion of older persons aged 65 and above in the next 30 years (United Nations, 2002), when we explore issues related to successful aging. Moreover, although women outlive men and are the majority of the elderly population, many studies have shown that women have less advantages for aging successfully than men have (Andrews et al., 2002; Chou & Chi, 2002). Nevertheless, very few studies depicted women’s successful aging, although a few research findings have shown that there are different predictors of successful aging between men and women (Morgan et al., 1991). To address the aforementioned gaps and needs, the purpose of this Learning In Community: Proceedings of the joint international conference of the Adult Education Research Conference (AERC) (48th National Conference) and the Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Education (CASAE)/l'Association Canadienne pour l'Etude de l'Education des Adultes (ACEEA) (26th National Conference). Edited by Laura Servage and Tara Fenwick (June 2007)