The concept of resilience, which indicates people's capability of using resources in difficult circumstances in order to reduce or prevent negative effects and achieve positive outcomes, has given a new perspective to the scientific literature on the experience of late-life memory loss and the experience of caring for persons with memory loss. The current research was guided by incorporation of resilience into the stress process model for assessing personal and caregiver burden associated with mild and more severe memory loss. I conducted two studies to investigate the association of protective factors with the well-being of people with dementia or mild cognitive impairment and their caregivers. The first study focused on the well-being of older persons with dementia (PwDs). I employed data from a large national sample of older adults to examine how the perceived social cohesion of neighborhoods affects quality of life among people with and without cognitive impairment in conjunction with their engagement in valued leisure activities. Findings revealed that, regardless of cognitive health status, all participants who perceived high neighborhood social cohesion reported better quality of life along with more participation in valued activities. However, PwDs reported significantly lower perceived neighborhood social cohesion, less involvement in valued activities, and poorer quality of life than persons without cognitive impairment. The second study focused on the well-being of caregivers for older persons with mild cognitive impairment (PwMCIs). I used dyadic data from families dealing with mild cognitive impairment to examine how well-being of caregivers for PwMCIs differed according to whether PwMCI-caregiver dyads had similar or different perceptions of the PwMCIs' cognitive impairment severity. Caregivers reported lower caregiving burden when they and PwMCIs had a similar cognitive impairment representation, or when caregivers rated the PwMCIs’ cognitive functioning more positively than the PwMCIs rated themselves. Also, PwMCIs’ and caregivers' perceptions, and their concordance or discrepancy in those perceptions, varied across the multiple domains related to MCI symptoms. These findings demonstrate that care dyads' perception of MCI-related deficits is not a unitary construct, and that the context of PwMCIs’ and caregivers’ dyadic illness appraisals is significantly associated with the caregivers' well-being. Taken together, the results of these two studies illustrate the value of considering resilience processes in people with cognitive impairment and their caregivers. Examining dimensions of resilience, in association with assessment of the intersecting effects of personal, interpersonal, and environmental factors, provides additional information about the effects of cognitive impairment on older adults’ well-being and the effects of assisting someone with cognitive impairment on caregiver well-being.