According to Erikson, the last psychosocial stage is Integrity vs. Despair, or "a retrospective accounting of one's life to date; how much one embraces life as having been well lived, as opposed to regretting missed opportunities" (Erikson, 1982, p. 112). Those in late adulthood need to achieve the acceptance of their life and the inevitability of their death (Barker, 2016). This stage includes finding meaning in one's life and accepting one's accomplishments, but also acknowledging what in life has not gone as hoped. It is also feeling a sense of contentment and accepting others' deficiencies, including those of their parents. This acceptance will lead to integrity, but if elders are unable to achieve acceptance, they may experience despair. Bitterness and resentments in relationships and life events can lead to despair at the end of life. According to Erikson (1982), successful completion of this stage leads to wisdom in late life.
Erikson's theory was the first to propose a lifespan approach to development, and it has encouraged the belief that older adults still have developmental needs. Prior to Erikson's theory, older adulthood was seen as a time of social and leisure restrictions and a focus primarily on physical needs (Barker, 2016). The current focus on aging well by keeping healthy and active helps to promote integrity. There are many avenues for those in late adulthood to remain vital members of society, and they will be explored next.
Staying Active:
Many older adults want to remain active and work toward replacing opportunities lost with new ones. Those who prefer to keep themselves busy demonstrate the Activity Theory, which states that greater satisfaction with one's life occurs with those who remain active (Lemon et al., 1972). Not surprisingly, more positive views on aging and greater health are noted with those who keep active than those who isolate themselves and disengage with others. Community, faith-based, and volunteer organizations can all provide those in late adulthood with opportunities to remain active and maintain social networks. Erikson's concept of generativity applies to many older adults, just as it did in midlife.
Research suggests that generativity is not just a concern for midlife adults, but for many elders, concerns about future generations continue into late adulthood. As previously discussed, some older adults are continuing to work beyond age 65. Additionally, they are volunteering in their community and raising their grandchildren in greater numbers.
Volunteering:
Many older adults spend time volunteering. Hooyman and Kiyak (2011) found that religious organizations are the primary settings for encouraging and providing opportunities to volunteer. Hospitals and environmental groups also provide volunteer opportunities for older adults. While volunteering peaks in middle adulthood, it continues to remain high among adults in their 60s, with about 40% engaging in volunteerism (Hooyman & Kiyak, 2011). While the number of older adults volunteering their time does decline with age, the number of hours older adults volunteer does not show much decline until they are in their late 70s (Hendricks & Cutler, 2004). African-American older adults volunteer at higher levels than other ethnic groups (Taylor et al., 2004). Taylor and colleagues attribute this to the higher involvement in religious organizations by older African-Americans.
Volunteering aids older adults as much as it does the community at large. Older adults who volunteer experience more social contact, which has been linked to higher rates of life satisfaction, and lower rates of depression and anxiety (Pilkington et al., 2012). Longitudinal research also finds a strong link between health in later adulthood and volunteering (Kahana et al., 2013). Lee and colleagues found that even among the oldest-old, the death rate of those who volunteer is half that of non-volunteers (Lee et al., 2011). However, older adults who volunteer may already be healthier, which is why they can volunteer compared to their less heathy agemates.
New opportunities exist for older adults to serve as virtual volunteers by dialoguing online with others from around the world and sharing their support, interests, and expertise. These volunteer opportunities range from helping teens with their writing to communicating with 'neighbors' in villages of developing countries. Virtual volunteering is available to those who cannot engage in face-to-face interactions, and it opens up a new world of possibilities and ways to connect, maintain identity, and be productive.
Grandparents Raising Grandchildren:
According to the 2020 American Community Survey (U.S. Census, 2020), over 5.9 million children under the age of 18 were living in families headed by a grandparent. This was more than the number of children identified in census data in 2010 and 2014. 54% of the grandparents were between the ages of 30 and 59, while 46% were aged 60 and above. For many grandparents, parenting a second time can be harder. Older adults have far less energy, and often the reason why they are now acting as parents to their grandchildren is because of traumatic events. A survey by AARP (Goyer, 2010) found that grandparents were raising their grandchildren because the parents had problems with drugs and alcohol, had a mental illness, were incarcerated, had divorced, had a chronic illness, were homeless, had neglected or abused the child, were deployed in the military, or had died. While most grandparents state they gain great joy from raising their grandchildren, they also face greater financial, health, education, and housing challenges that often derail their retirement plans than do grandparents who do not have primary responsibility for raising their grandchildren.
