نوع مقاله : پژوهشی اصیل
نویسنده
استادیار گروه علوم ورزشی دانشگاه پیام نور
چکیده
کلیدواژهها
موضوعات
Introduction
Today, attention to the elderly and their condition is an important and significant issue for society. The growing trend of population aging and the importance of the mental integrity of the elderly have made it more important to examine the factors related to it. . Among the important factors that are influential in this field, attention to physical health and social health and its related factors is of great importance. It should be borne in mind that the elderly are a vulnerable group in society and not paying attention to them causes serious harm to them. For this reason, examining their condition and providing improvement solutions can be useful and effective. . The practical importance of this research is that the final results and the solutions presented are useful and effective for managers of aging institutions, consultants and psychologists, and sports institutions and organizations. . On the other hand, despite the importance of psychological cohesion in old age, studies in the field of psychological toughness of the elderly and its relationship with positive concepts such as health-oriented lifestyle and social health of elderly athletes are very few, and especially the lack of studies that use structural equation models to examine the relationships between the aforementioned variables is completely evident. Therefore, the present study was conducted with the aim of developing a model of the relationship between health-oriented lifestyle and social health of elderly athletes, with the mediating role of psychological toughness.
Methods
The present study is a descriptive-correlational survey-type study in terms of its purpose and applied nature and in terms of data collection, which was conducted in the field and based on the structural equation model approach. The statistical population of the study consisted of all elderly people who used the Health and Wellness Road Project of Kermanshah city for sports and physical activities on a daily and regular basis. 250 people were selected as a statistical sample using the
convenience sampling method. In this study, the standard questionnaires of health-promoting behaviors of Walker et al. (1995), the social health questionnaire of Keyes et al. (2004) and the psychological hardiness questionnaire of Kiamarei et al. (2007) were used to collect information. The validity of the instrument was evaluated and confirmed based on the opinions of experts, and the reliability of the questionnaires was estimated through Cronbach's alpha. The questionnaires were distributed in a quiet and safe environment with a suitable space and location called Kermanshah City Health Road, which was created by the Kermanshah Municipality, away from the city and in a fresh and accessible environment for walking and performing sports and physical activities, by two students of the Department of Sports Sciences at Payam Noor University among the elderly (men and women), 65 to 75 years old and above in 2026, who engage in sports activities on a daily and regular basis. In this study, descriptive and inferential statistical methods were used to analyze the data using the structural equation model with the help of SmartPLS software.
Results
Based on the findings of the study, health-oriented lifestyle has a direct and significant effect on social health with an impact coefficient of 0.300 and a critical value of 2.085, health-oriented lifestyle has a direct and significant effect on psychological toughness with an impact coefficient of 0.740 and a critical value of 333.16, and psychological toughness has a direct and significant effect on social health with an impact coefficient of 0.456 and a critical value of 3.500. Also, health-oriented lifestyle has an indirect and significant effect on social health with the mediating role of psychological toughness with a critical value of 12.530. Based on the findings of this study, design the necessary interventions to improve psychological toughness and emphasize social health in elderly athletes and thus help them achieve a health-oriented lifestyle.
Conclusion
The final result of the present study showed that, given the rapid aging of the population and the decrease in physical activity of the elderly, a necessary condition for them to play different social roles in society is to have a healthy lifestyle. Because all humans can perform their full social activity only if they personally consider themselves healthy and the society considers them healthy. Therefore, choosing a healthy lifestyle and the behaviors related to it, especially among the elderly, not only plays a fundamental role in their health, but also has consequences and results that can be effective on the performance, well-being, and physical, mental, and social health of the elderly. Although the results of the present study emphasize the importance of the role of psychological toughness in the relationship between a health-oriented lifestyle and the social health of athletic elderly, the present study was also accompanied by some limitations. The present study was conducted only on the elderly athletes in Kermanshah city, which makes its generalizability difficult, and the inclusion of social and economic variables in the study sample is considered another limitation of this study, and it is recommended to consider the aforementioned limitations in future studies. Also, the only source of data collection in this study was a questionnaire, which is self-reported, and for this reason, a single-method bias may have been created in the information obtained. In this regard, some issues can be identified within the framework of this article for future research. The following suggestions can add to the richness of future research in this field. It is suggested that in order to achieve more valid results, future studies be conducted on a larger group of athletes and data be collected through methods other than self-report, for example, through interviews. Also, based on the findings of this study, sports experts can design the necessary interventions to improve psychological toughness and social health in elderly athletes, thereby helping them achieve a health-oriented lifestyle.
Footnotes
Ethical approval: This study was non-experimental in nature and did not involve any intervention with human or animal subjects; therefore, obtaining an ethics approval code was not required. Nevertheless, all stages of the research were conducted in accordance with ethical research principles, including academic integrity, respect for authors’ intellectual property rights, and avoidance of data fabrication or distortion.
Funding: This research has not received financial support from any organization or body.
Authors’ contribution: All authors participated in the data collection process and writing the content of the article.
Conflict of interest: No conflicts of interest have been reported by the authors of the article.
Acknowledgments: The authors of the article are grateful to all those who helped and assisted in conducting this research.
2015; 22(5):275-283. https://doi.org/10.1108/07363760510611707.
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