Life story narrative resilience in later life: Storying lives of multiple adversities amidst troubled times

Resilience is a central psychological concept, especially relevant to later life, given the losses and adversities aging often brings. Most research on later-life resilience relies on (post-)positivist methods that produce theory-driven understanding. Narrative resilience complements this knowledge by capturing older adults' resilience “from within.” However, most studies on later-life narrative resilience do not adhere to the holistic principle underlying the narrative research paradigm or examine a priori narrative dimensions, risking the neglect of unanticipated aspects and creating culturally biased portrayals. To address these limitations, we used inductive, holistic narrative methods for data generation and analysis to examine life-story narrative resilience , which we conceptualize as a distinct form of narrative resilience, among older adults socialized in the particular historical and sociocultural context of the Former Soviet Union facing multiple adversities. Twelve Holocaust survivors from the Former Soviet Union living alone in Israel during COVID-19 shared their life stories, which were analyzed using the mechanisms of narrative selection model. We present a nuanced account of participants' narrative selection, organized around a challenge-successful coping storyline, yielding four insights into later-life narrative resilience, particularly life-story narrative resilience: (1) it is a present-to-past interpretive process rooted in narrators' current circumstances; (2) it addresses fundamental identity needs of later life – self-esteem, self-continuity, and symbolic immortality; (3) it asserts cumulative resilience; and (4) it is culturally constructed. We conclude with recommendations for future research and narrative care interventions to harness the potential of narrative resilience to navigate the complexities of later life.