The Influence of Vision Function and Social Support on Well-being among Oldest-old Adults: Findings from the Georgia

with the Portraits of American Life Study, a national survey of 2,610 American adults aged 18-80+. Results of multivariate logistic and ordered logistic regression models reveal that young adults are most likely to have recently offered advice to family members, friends, or strangers. Interestingly, however, the connection between advice-giving and the sense of life meaningfulness is most pronounced for late-middle age adults—even as contextual factors and social role changes during this part of the life course reduce the likelihood of advice exchange. Consistent with Erikson’s framework, advice appears to be a mechanism for contributing to others’ welfare and for cultivating life meaning. Yet opportunity structures for advice transmission also shift over the course of adulthood and leave late middle age and older adults with fewer opportunities to engage in such generative practices.