2114 – A pilot study on promoting sense of coherence through person-centered therapy in older adults

Abstract

Older adults’ sense of coherence (SOC) is often challenged by changes in later adulthood. Therefore, this study aims to explore if a brief eight-session individual person-centered therapy (PCT) intervention on older adults can promote their SOC, as compared with a control group (waiting list). We posited that participants and randomized to PCT would report improvements in SOC from pre- to post-intervention compared to those in waiting list. The Sense of Coherence Scale (SOCS).and demographics were assessed at the baseline (t 1 ), post-treatment (t 2 ) and at the 12-month follow-up (t 3 ), in a group of 87 participants between 65-86 years ( M =71.9 SD =4.77). Results indicated that participants in PCT evidenced greater improvements as to their SOC (31.4%) than those in waiting list (2.3%). Both at the post-intervention, and at follow-up, participants who underwent PCT had a significantly higher SOC (M=4.76, SD=.524). In addition, results revealed no significant between group differences in any socio-demographic variable ( P's >.05) in t 1 , t 2 and t 3 . Changes in SOC were positive and maintained, thus, findings suggest that PCT is favorable to enhancing SOC. In this context, PCT is also a personal resource to promote SOC. Moreover, since SOC is shown to be associated with healthrelated well-being among older populations, SOC development in old age should be focused.