{"doi":"10.1093/geront/gnad019","title":"Preparing for the Future While Living in the Present: Older Adults’ Experiences Creating a Legacy of Values","abstract":"BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: A legacy of values (e.g., legacy letter) is a nonlegal way to intentionally communicate intangible assets (e.g., values, life lessons, and emotional and supportive instruction) with others. There is scant research on legacy creation outside of a palliative care context, and no studies have explored the experiences of community-dwelling older adults creating a legacy of values. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: As part of an exploratory sequential mixed methods study, we conducted semistructured interviews with older adults (N = 16) who had previously created a legacy of values. We analyzed transcribed interviews using an interpretive descriptive approach. We iteratively coded interviews deductively with sensitizing concepts identified in the literature (existential well-being, end-of-life preparation and completion, generativity, and resilience), and inductively, based on participants' descriptions. Codes were categorized by patterns of motivations, content, outcomes, and meaning, and thematically summarized. RESULTS: We conceptualized the overall experience of creating a legacy of values as Preparing for the Future While Living in the Present and identified 4 themes: Preserving the Intangible for You and for Me, Sharing What I Want You to Know, Obtaining Peace through Reflection and Preparation, and Living into a Continuing Legacy. Participants attained peace, realized their life was not complete, and were challenged to live intentionally through legacy creation. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS: Creating a legacy of values may concurrently prepare older adults for the end of life and the remainder of life. These findings offer insight into a generative act that can promote intentional living among older adults.","journal":"The Gerontologist","year":2023,"id":347480,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":11,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9546,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":714451,"name":"Kristin G. Cloyes","orcid":"0000-0003-2139-7716","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":780455,"name":"Linda S. Edelman","orcid":"0000-0002-8903-0083","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":270402,"name":"Bob Wong","orcid":"0000-0003-1386-4505","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1089374,"name":"Barry Baines","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":791018,"name":"Gail L. Towsley","orcid":"0000-0002-0712-9558","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":732577,"name":"Sarah Neller","orcid":"0000-0002-3769-9447","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":51,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:11:57.720122Z","pmid":"36842069","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}