The goal of this project is to broaden the understanding of the lived experience of aging with a disability, from the perspectives of individuals with physical disabilities resulting from spinal cord injury (SCI). The specific objectives of this project are to:
1. Learn how people with SCI attain and maintain optimal quality of life as they age.
2. Understand how people with SCI develop resilience as they grow older.
3. Understand how individual quality of life is related to the degree and mechanism of resilience among people with SCI.
4. Learn which resources and practices have been most helpful and useful to people with SCI as they age with their disability.
5. Assess personal, behavioral, and environmental factors that contribute to resilience and quality of life among people aging with SCI.
6. Refine and confirm a holistic model for the relationships among the concepts of resilience, quality of life, and person-centered factors (resources, behaviors).
Through in-depth interviews and detailed surveys, we will explore how people with SCI attain and maintain optimal quality of life as they age, and how their quality of life relates to resiliency as they traverse the path of aging with SCI. We will explore with participants the resources and practices that have been most helpful and useful to them as they age with their disability.
