THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERCEIVED COMPETENCE AND OBJECTIVE MEASURES OF PHYSICAL AND FUNCTIONAL PERFORMANCE IN OLDER ADULTS 628

Abstract

In recent years increasing attention has focused on the assessment of an individual's perceived competence in physical, intellectual, and social arenas. A variety of instruments have been developed to assess both general self-competence, as well as more specific dimensions of perceived competence, such as, physical appearance, athleticism, sociability, and functional ability. It is increasingly clear that an individual's perception of their own competence can impact on both their willingness and ability to perform a specific task (Fox, 1987). Unfortunately, little is known about the relationship between perceptions of competence and more objective measures of physical and functional ability. This study examined the relationship between perceived competence and selected measures of functional performance in healthy older adults. Twenty males and eighteen females (mean age = 67.7 years, age range 61-85 years) participated in the study. Global and specific self-competence was evaluated using the Adult Self-Perception Profile (Messer& Harter, 1986) and the modified Physical Self-Perception Profile (Chase, 1991). The performance tests included the AAHPERD (Osness et al., 1987) fitness test for older adults (agility/dynamic balance, coordination, flexibility, arm endurance, and aerobic endurance), measures of grip strength, static balance, manual dexterity, shoulder mobility, and a submaximal exercise stress test using a bicycle ergometer protocol. Results revealed that perceived competence was unrelated to either stress test performance or to any of the field tests of functional fitness. For example, when subjects were classified into discrete high and low perceived competence groups, none of the functional performance items significantly discriminated between the high and low perceived competence groups. Our data suggest that, in the older adult population studied, perceived competence is unrelated to actual physical and/or functional ability