The resilience characteristics and its influencing factors in the elderly disabled

Abstract

Objective To investigate the resilience characteristics of the elderly disabled, and the effects of individual, family and social factors on resilience. Methods A total of 138 disabled older adults from four districts of Chengdu City were investigated by 10 items Connor-Davidson resilience scale (CD-RISC-10), the automatic thoughts questionnaire (ATQ), self esteem scale (SES), revised eysenck personnality questionnaire short scale for chinese(EPQ-RSC) and self-made population sociology questionnaire.Totally 194 community-dwelling older adults without disabilities, as a comparative population, were included in the analysis. Results Compared with the community-dwelling elderly without disability(35.58±5.75, 18.13±3.48, 18.43±3.08), the scores of resilience(21.38±7.71), strength(10.50±4.08)and hardiness (10.88±4.07) of the elderly disabled were significantly lower(t=-19.56, -17.81, -18.34, P<0.01). There were no significant differences in the resilience scores of the elderly disabled in terms of gender, urban and rural sources, marital status, education, disability level and family atmosphere. However, there were significant differences in age, disability causes, disability type and family economic conditions(age: thardiness=2.18, P<0.05. disability causes: tresilience=-2.75, tstrength=-2.22, thardiness=-2.68, P<0.05. disability type: Fhardiness=2.60, P<0.05. family economic conditions: Fresilience=5.45, Fstrength=4.78, Fhardiness=5.21, P<0.01). The resilience, automatic thoughts, self-esteem and personality were significant correlation with each other(r=-0.16-0.65, P<0.05). After controlling age, disability causes, disability type and family economic conditions, self esteem(β =0.291, P<0.01), extraversion(β =0.287, P<0.01) and neuroticism(β =-0.254, P<0.05) were important influential factors of resilience, explained 32.0% variance in resilience. Conclusion It may be an important way to improve resilience level of the elderly disabled by enhancing their self-esteem, promoting their psychological adjustment and strengthening their emotional management. Key words: The elderly disabled; Resilience; Self esteem; Automatic thoughts; Personality