Proactive Coping and Successful Aging. What role do resources and strategies play in the preparation for potential goal threats associated with aging?

This thesis has focused on proactive coping, a new and promising concept that refers to the process of screening one’s environment for danger, recognizing future stressors, appraising them as potential goal threats, and, finally, undertaking attempts to prevent them (Aspinwall, 1997; Aspinwall & Taylor, 1997). The studies discussed in this thesis provide the first empirical results in relation to this concept and, in particular, identify the factors that contribute to the engagement in proactive coping. This final chapter summarizes the main results of these studies, compares them, and places them within the theoretical framework of self-regulation. In addition, the methodological limitations of the studies are discussed and recommendations for future research are made. The chapter finishes with a consideration of the potential practical implications of the research that has been presented