The growth of medicine and science in today's 21st century industrial society has greatly lengthened the average human life span, and not only survival into one's advanced years, but successful aging is a topic of great interest. As a method for succe...
The growth of medicine and science in today's 21st century industrial society has greatly lengthened the average human life span, and not only survival into one's advanced years, but successful aging is a topic of great interest. As a method for successful aging, participation in programs to promote health are emerging as a means for providing care through improved daily life and health habits, prevention of disease, improved physical condition and increased quality of life.
Therefore, this study investigates feelings of self-efficacy in senior citizens participating in health promotion programs and its effects on their self-esteem and quality of life as a way to provide basic data for directing daily health promotion programs by physical education leaders dealing exclusively with the elderly.
To achieve the goal of this study, differences in self-efficacy, self-esteem, and quality of life were measured according to the general characteristics of senior citizen subjects, and the relations between the factors were analyzed.
The sampling for the study was men and women 60 living in Seoul in 2010 and participating in health promotion programs conducted by physical education leaders dealing exclusively with the elderly who belong to the National Life Physical Education Association. The areas under study consisted of four regions in Seoul (north, south, east, west) where a total of 412 were used for the analysis. SPSS for Windows 12.0 was used to process the data using frequency analysis, independent specimen t-verification, variance analysis and Scheffe, LSD verification, correlation coefficients, and multiple correlation analysis.
The data gathered and analyzed yielded the following results.
First, the better the subjective view of one's health, the higher one's level of exercise, frequency of exercise at 4-5 times per week, with exercise periods of 2 + hours per time resulted in strong feelings of self-efficacy. Positive self- esteem was higher for men over women, those with partners, those with higher educations, those whose subjective health was better, and who engaged in higher levels of exercise. Physical quality of life was viewed highest by those who engaged in higher levels of exercise, who exercised at a frequency of 4-5 times per week, and whose exercise periods were shortest.
Second, feelings of self-efficacy was shown to not influence self-esteem.
Third, feelings of self-efficacy significantly impacted physical quality of life.
Fourth, Positive self-esteem significantly affected physical quality of life, while negative self-esteem affected both physical and emotional quality of life.
Viewed as a whole, the results the general characteristics of the senior citizens participating in the programs under study showed close connections between feelings of self-efficacy, self-esteem and quality of life, all of which were rated as high. Because self-efficacy and self-esteem particularly impact quality of life, when the former two are high, may potentially have positive psychological impact on physical and emotional quality of life through positive attitudes leading to concern about one's health and desirable physical activities. Therefore, it is thought that the programs conducted by the leaders in the study serve to heighten feelings of self-efficacy and self-esteem in senior citizens, and enrich their quality of life.