An introduction of what we mean by 'major life changes', as well as an outline of the findings from the data related to managing major life changes.
Our research - Later Life in 2015 - found that psychological dimensions were important to a good later life, with people’s attitudes and outlook a major factor in whether they were happy in later life. Further, participant’s felt that having an optimistic outlook on life was key to managing major life changes.
The Centre for Ageing Better commissioned Ipsos MORI to investigate happiness in later life and identify the factors that make for a good later life. A mixed methods approach was used, involving analysis of existing data to identify groups of people with similar experiences of later life, in-depth interviews and visits with people in each group, and a survey of people aged 50 and over in England.*
This briefing introduces what we mean by major life changes, and outlines some of the ndings from the survey and interview data related to managing major life changes.
* See end-note: ‘Background to the survey’ for further information.
