Aging & Social Change: Eleventh Interdisciplinary Conference

Abstract

 This paper aims to analyze Satisfaction with Life (SwL), Resilience and Depression among Portuguese elderly, and establish a comparison between long physically active (with physical activities for more than five years, G1), (b) recent physically active (physical activities for less than five years, G2), (c) non-physically active (G3) elderly. Participants were 92 Portuguese, between 65 and 91 years old (average age = 74.77; SD = 6.05, 56.5% female). Both G1 and G2 participants attended the same public physical activity program, while G3 participants were recruited through the researcher’s networks and participants indications of other people. Subjective wellbeing was evaluated by means of the Satisfaction with Life (SwL), for Resilience we adopted the Brief Resilience Scale, and depressive symptoms were assessed using the Geriatric Depression Scale. Results show that G1 and G2 have overall higher SwL and Resilience scores than G3. Also, G1 and G2 presented lower depressive sintoms scores than G3. Because there was no significant difference between G1 and G2, it seems that the key aspect in this issue lays in doing physical activity, regardless of how much time one spends doing it. Our results highlight the importance of community programs focused on the promotion of physical health, subjective wellbeing, and mental health for the elderly. Further results are discussed alongside limitations and implications for research and professional practice.