Activity participation and morale among older adults

The use of discretionary time among older adults and its relationship to well-being is of particular interest to many researchers, practitioners, and service providers. Interview data were collected from a randomly selected sample of 171 persons 65 years of age and older from the urbanized area of Roanoke, Virginia. The study ascertains whether there is a relationship between amount of participation in thirteen activity categories and morale among older adults, after implementing controls for age, self-perceived health, and income. Using multiple regression analysis, results suggest that morale is largely influenced by the control variables, particularly health. In fact, almost none of the variance of the dependent variable is attributable to amount of activity. Implications for activity program development and theoretical refinement are discussed.