No description available.

The purpose of this study was to determine what recreational activities were of greatest interest and appeal to members of nine senior centers in Texas and according to their age and sex. The nine senior centers were randomly selected from the forty-two centers in Texas. A minimum of twenty-five members at the selected centers were asked to respond to a questionnaire concerning their recreational activity interest. A total of two hundred seventy-four respondents completed the questionnaire, of which seventy-nine were males and one hundred ninety-five were females. The questionnaire consisted of nine recreational activity categories. These categories were designed to cover a wide range of recreational interest. Table games were the activities indicated by the respondents (88 per cent) to be of greatest interest. The activity that was indicated to be of least interest was dancing (47 per cent). Activities that included social contact had the greatest interest to the respondents. A recommendation was made that senior centers should stress those activities of a social group nature. The centers should also provide more outdoor life activities.

This study examined the contribution of several variables to the prediction of perceived freedom in leisure (PFL) and life satisfaction in older adults. Demographic, health and socioeconomic variables were compared with participation in recreation programs, church involvement and PFL. Church involvement was viewed as a leisure activity rather than a measure of religiosity. The survey instrument incorporated all these variables and was pretested and revised before use in the study. The sample consisted of 198 persons 60 years of age and older who were members of two Southern Baptist churches. Subjects were randomly selected, but persons considered by church staff members to be incapable of completing the survey were eliminated. Surveys were hand delivered and picked up by volunteer workers, and a 38 percent return rate was obtained. Alpha reliability for the church involvement, PFL and life satisfaction scales in the instrument were .87, .94, and .77, respectively. Frequency counts and percentages or means and standard deviations were calculated for the demographic variables. Subjects were categorized by level of involvement in church and community recreation programs. Persons involved in community but not church recreation programs were underrepresented in the sample. A selective sampling procedure was utilized to obtain more respondents in this category, but the data from these individuals were analyzed separately. Stepwise multiple regression analyses were utilized to ascertain the impact of different variables upon PFL and life satisfaction. Three predictors of PFL emerged— participation in recreation programs, church involvement and satisfaction with health. Correlations between these variables and life satisfaction were consistent with the findings in the literature. Inclusion of church involvement, participation in recreation programs and, for the life satisfaction analysis, PFL raised the percentage of variance explained. Thus, greater predictive power emerged using these variables than when only demographic, health and socioeconomic variables were included.

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. / Master of Science / incomplete_metadata

This investigation is concerned with determining the extent of involvement by fifteen Texas municipal parks and recreation departments in providing programs for senior citizens, the mentally retarded, the physically handicapped, and the emotionally disturbed.

The goal of this project is to create an outdoor environment that responds to the social, physical and emotional needs of older adults.The main objective of this project is to provide quality outdoor spaces associated with a housing facility. To meet this objective, the project stresses three major objectives: (1) to integrate the older adults' housing facility with the neighborhood in order to eliminate segregation and loneliness; (2) to determine the aspects of nature that are beneficial to the older adults' physical and mental health; and (3) to create an appropriate outdoor environment that will increase social contact and enhance active and passive recreational spaces to improve physical and emotional health.The literature section of this project focuses on setting up criteria for the questionnaire. The Literature review also helps to identify guidelines for design and design principles. Criteria for the final conceptual design was set using the data from the survey and the case studies. Finally a conceptual design was created to meet the objectives. / Department of Landscape Architecture

This study employed the grounded theory methodology suggested by Strauss and Corbin (1990) to analyze and explore the meaning of and motivation for mall walking among a group of older, rural, independently living adults. Interviews were conducted with 14 respondents aged 62-81 and participant observation was conducted at a rural mall. Mall walking was initially motivated by three conditions: (a) expert-directed advice, (b) self-determined goals, and (c) the invitation of significant others. Four major factors encouraged continued participation in mall walking: (a) the need to create work roles after retirement, (b) fear due to perceived vulnerability in the community, (c) social supports from family and peers, and (d) a sense of membership in a community of older adults that was generally time and place specific. Members of this mall community shared activities, routines, rituals, beliefs, and a sense of belonging. Despite medical disorders, all of the respondents said their health was good. After initially responding to medical advice to walk, walkers paid little or no attention to medical problems. These older adults did not continue to mall walk in response to expert medical direction. This finding suggests that health promoting activities should not rely on the continuing influence of medical advice to encourage adherence or ongoing participation in health promoting activities, and should instead attend to the social constructs of health and wellness. An important implication for future research is the finding that mall walking was a quasi-work activity, not exercise. Walkers created "work" routines and roles that replaced those lost upon retirement. The equation of mall walking with work has implications for both the design and the implementation of health promoting activities for older adults. / Ph. D.

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Landscape Architecture

Older Americans will comprise 22.9% of the population by the year 2050 (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1989). The literature has focused attention on the informal networks and leisure activities of the older adult. Most older adults have an effective network of close relationships with family and friends.Schein (1985) suggests that impaired hearing reduces communication resulting in social withdrawal and diminished participation in leisure activities. Only recently has research addressed the impact of subjective memory impairment. The literature on self-reported memory complaints and objective measures of performance are mixed.The purpose of this study was to better understand the role self-reported hearing impairment and memory impairment have on the social contact and leisure activities of community adults. Results indicate that gender is a significant indicator of social contact. The hypothesis that individuals reporting memory difficulties would differ significantly in social contact and leisure activities from unimpaired individuals was supported. No significant multivariate effect appeared for hearing on social contact or leisure activities. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

The problem of this study was a test of a specific videotape designed to influence the actions of tour guides for older adult groups. The purposes of the study were to observe guide performances and older adult responses before and after training in techniques for sharing information with older adults in public spaces. The hypotheses were tested. 1) Guides after training would exhibit significant differences in behaviors of pointing, repeating, pausing, questioning, conversing, facing art when talking, talking inaudibly, pacing rapidly. 2) Older adult drop-outs would decrease on tours with especially trained guides.