This study examined the relationships between social activities and the two scale scores measuring activity satisfaction for the elderly such as the Activity and Daily Life Satisfaction Scale for Elderly and Social Activities-Related Daily Life Satisfaction Scale. Data for 932 older adults aged 65 to 79 years were obtained from a mail survey in urban areas, Chiba Prefecture. The social activities was measured with reference to three domains : community based activities, contribution activities, and hobby club. The major findings of the multiple regression analyses were as follows: 1) contribution activities and hobby club were positively related to the Activity and Daily Life Satisfaction Scale for Elderly score ; 2) all social activities were positively associated with Social Activities-Related Daily Life Satisfaction Scale score; 3) among men, some social activities were not related to subscale scores of the Social Activities-Related Daily Life Satisfaction Scale. Generally, engagement in hobby club was the most effective to increase the two scale scores measuring activity satisfaction.

  We aimed to extract factors/components enable the continuation of home care (Study I) and then, based on the components, to develop an indicator to evaluate family caregivers’ appraisal (Study II). First, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 18 individuals of 14 families caring for a family member who requires serious nursing care at home over three years, in order to collect caregiving related factors. Based on these factors, we developed the Family Caregivers’ Appraisal Checklist (FACL) which indicate family caregivers’ appraisal as a family unit. Then we carried out a questionnaire survey on evaluating 1,020 caregiver families’ performance appraisal using the FACL. An exploratory factor analysis was executed, with responses to the coping strategies scale (Okabayashi et al., 1999) and the cognitive caregiving appraisal scale (Hirose et al., 2005), to determine the measuring facets of FACL. The results revealed that FACL consisted of items related to individual cognition and coping strategy toward caregiving by the main caregiver, and of non-individual level factors, such as economic status, family intention to continue home care, and care service system. Findings obtained suggest the importance of evaluating caregivers’ appraisal as a whole family unit, not as an individual caregiver, for assisting home care.

  The present study investigated the effects of receiving and providing social support in reducing loneliness among the middle-aged and elderly, and examined the influence of social support and loneliness on their mental health. Our questionnaire was administered to people aged 50 and over. The final sample consisted of 326 respondents (212 male and 114 female). We measured loneliness by using the UCLA Loneliness Scale Version 3. Its reliability was confirmed through factor analysis. The questionnaire also included scales to measure mental health (WHO-5), social support, subjective health, and subjective economic condition. The results of path analysis were as follows: emotional support, but not instrumental support, was related to loneliness. Further, no relationship was found between social support and mental health expect for receiving instrumental support. These results suggest that social support does not directly influence mental health, but reduces the negative emotion of loneliness.

  This study aims to deliberate the psychological effects of an intervention program to make life story books reflecting the life-review process by the frail elderly. We selected as participants 22 elderly persons aged 71-95 who lived in nursing homes. Among these elderly, we assigned 10 participants for an intervention and 12 for a control group, respectively. The program continued for 6 consecutive weeks, where the intervention group was interviewed once a week to convey their life review. Later, the stories were edited into life story books. To examine the intervention effects of the program, pre- and post- evaluation tests were conducted for both groups. Emotional well-being, negative-mood, self-esteem and integrity were measured to assess the psychological state of the participants. The results of ANOVA with repeated measures showed significant interaction effects on emotional well-being, negative-mood and self-esteem. These three indices revealed differing affects on the intervention and control groups : the score of emotional well-being and negative-mood for the intervention group improved, whereas self-esteem for the control group deteriorated. Our result suggests that creating life story books reflecting the life-review process can be one of the effective tools to enhance the psychological well-being of frail elderly.

  The purpose of this study was to create a modified version of the Japanese Gerotranscendence Scale (Masui et al., 2010), and to determine the validity and reliability of the Japanese Gerotranscendence Scale Revised: JGS-R). JGS-R consists of eight factors based on the original items of JGS. A questionnaire survey was administered to 1,973 community-dwelling older adults in Japan using the JGS-R. After excluding missing values, we analyzed the data (n=1831; 52.3% women; aged 69-81) utilizing a confirmatory factor analysis. The results showed that with the hypothesized eight-factor structure, the model of the 27 items, after deletion of items with low factor loadings, demonstrated a high goodness of fit (GFI=.95 AGFI=.93 RMSEA=.044). Furthermore, we found the same factor structures as the original scale. We also collected data (n=344, 50.0% women; aged 49-71) via an online survey tool to examine the test-retest reliability of JGS-R. The test-retest reliability of the eight subordinate factors of JGS-R with a one-month interval was adequate at r= .55〜.83 but internal consistency of a few of the 34subordinate factors of JGS-R were low. It is concluded that JGS-R has validity and reliability at a certain level, but that there should be further improvement for items of subordinate scales.