Effect of card play on perceived life satisfaction and self esteem of older adults

Abstract

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM: The problem of this study was to (a) assess the effect of playing cards on the level of perception of life satisfaction and self-esteem in older adults and (b) determine if there was any difference in the perceived level of life satisfaction and self-esteem between older adults who played cards with other people compared with those who played cards on a computer. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY: The purpose of this study was to examine a potentially cost effective way to improve the level of perception of life satisfaction and self-esteem of the older adult. METHODS: Single-subject repeated measures A-B-A design was used for the three phase experiment. Data were collected from all subjects across a total of six weeks. Phase (A) was the establishment of the baseline before the start of treatment phase (B). Subjects in the study were tested with two measurement instruments of Life Satisfaction and Self-Esteem before treatment of card play on the computer or face-to-face card play, were administered. Midpoint and end-treatment tests were given at the second and fourth weeks. These two testing sessions measured phase (B), the treatment phase of the experiment. Two weeks after the treatment phase, tests were given as the post-treatment (A) last phase of the experiment, measuring the subjects post treatment return to baseline. Data analysis: data collected from the four testing periods were entered into a Microsoft 2007 Excel file. Individual and combined trend line charts were generated for descriptive analysis, interpretation, and explanation of the trend lines across times of testing.