Examining the aging process through the stress-coping framework: application to driving cessation in later life

Abstract

The aging process is marked by a series of transitions that influence multiple domains of well-being. One important transition for older adults is the process of driving cessation. Numerous studies have examined risk factors for driving cessation among older adults to identify at-risk older drivers for road safety. Recent research has focused on the consequences of driving cessation in later life for health and well-being. However, these reports have been largely empirical and are not drawn from a defined conceptual framework. Establishing a theoretical model of ‘how driving cessation interacts with other processes and domains of aging’ will promote synthesis of seemingly disparate findings and also link the empirical research on cessation to the broader field of gerontology. This article describes a conceptual model for articulating and examining the components of the driving cessation process based on the stress-coping paradigm. This model situates driving cessation within the context of exogenous stressors, individual vulnerabilities and coping strategies, and environmental hazards and buffers over the lifespan. This model could assist in guiding intervention strategies aimed at reducing premature driving cessation in older drivers with ameliorable impairments while assisting at-risk older drivers to reduce or stop driving in a less stressful way.

Keywords:

• stress
• coping
• functional status
• quality of life/well-being
• dementia and cognitive disorders

Acknowledgments

An earlier version of this article was presented at the 11th International Conference on Social Stress Research, Santa Fe, NM on June 1, 2008. B. Mezuk is supported by the Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health (BIRCWH) program (5K12-HD055881). M. Choi and B. Mezuk are supported by award number UL1RR031990 from the National Center for Research Resources and NIH Roadmap for Medical Research, National Institutes of Health. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Center for Research Resources or the National Institutes of Health. The authors have no financial support for research, consultantships, speakers’ forums, or other holdings that might be in conflict of interest with respect to this study.