ABSTRACT
Activity theory and successful aging demonstrate the positive impacts that older adults have in rural communities. Activity theory holds that life satisfaction and well-being are improved when an older person remains engaged in social, civic, or community activities. Successful aging is similar to active aging in challenging expectations that older adults pull away from social and public life but differs in its focus on physical and cognitive health and disease prevention. Socioemotional selectivity theory is relevant to aging populations in rural communities because older adults in these communities often report higher levels of happiness than their counterparts in urban environments, even as they generally experience decreased access to health services and higher levels of poverty. The cumulative inequality theory of aging challenges the success and activity theories of aging by placing the effects of individual life events on the aging process in the context of structural inequality.
