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To date, despite the many recognised benefits of participation in sport, many older people do not participate in it. This study explored the opinions about barriers to participating in sport among non-active older people from the perspective of 463 senior athletes (M = 61.4, SD = 5.5 years) engaged in competitive sports. Participants completed a questionnaire including an incomplete sentence regarding the reason why many older people do not play sports. We analysed their answers using content analysis and performed bivariate analyses to determine possible associations with the sociodemographic and participatory characteristics of the sample. The results highlighted a range of perceived barriers which mostly related to past and present opportunities, and contained significant variations according to age, country of residence, and years participating in sports. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the way in which senior athletes perceive the barriers for the initiation of non-active older people in sports participation which could inform potential measures to promote greater participation in sport as a meaningful leisure activity among this age group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the concept of "active aging" has been widely used as a framework to underpin an optimistic view of aging, few studies have focused on the activities it encompasses and what participants learn. The aim of this study was to explore and compare the learning outcomes acquired from different active aging activities. A sample of 448 people aged 60 years and older participated in the study. The vast majority of participants stated that they had learned something valuable from their involvement in the active aging activity. Content analysis showed two main types of learning: self-focused learning and other-focused learning, whose frequency differed depending on the activity in which participants were engaged. The results of this study show the complexity of the concept of active aging and the need to diversify actions to promote each of the activities included in this framework, based on the type of learning acquired.

Narrative approaches have gained popularity as a way to understand the construction and development of political identities over a person's life span. However, little is known about how lifetime activists remember and make sense of different types of political experiences. To overcome this gap, this study aims to explore thematic and structural features of the narratives of lifetime activists about political experiences (O1), as well as examining differences in these features according to the type of experience described and the life stage at which the event narrated occurred (O2). Forty political activists aged 65 years or older were invited to explain a positive event, a negative event and a turning point in their political participation. The motivational themes, affective themes, themes of integrative meaning and structural elements of the narratives were analysed. Results show significant variations in these narrative features according to the type of political experience described and the life stage at which the event narrated occurred. Our study adds to the previous literature on political identities showing that, far from being monolithic, lifelong activists' narratives about political experiences show significant variations according to these two features. Overall, the structural variations that we found in lifetime activists' narratives about political experiences largely mirrored previous literature on general autobiographical narratives. This means that, regardless of whether life stories are general or domain-specific, their structural characteristics and the variations they show by life stage and type of narrated events are largely similar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives This study aimed to critically examine current knowledge on the role of personality in successful aging, considering Hooker and McAdams' 3-level, 6-foci model of personality. The aim was also to pinpoint knowledge gaps that research should address in the future. Research Design and Methods We carried out a scoping review of the literature on successful aging and personality, following the 5-step framework proposed by Arksey and O'Malley and further expanded by Levac et al. Results Research into the role of personality in successful aging has grown significantly over the last 20 years. However, the increasing number of publications on the topic was primarily accounted for by studies focused on Layer 1 and particularly Layer 2 of McAdams' model of personality, with Layer 3 being scarcely addressed. Research that included more than 1 layer of personality was rare. Discussion and Implications Our study pinpointed gaps that should be considered in future research in this area. These gaps were related to advancing toward agreed-upon definitions of successful aging and personality, broadening the scope of research on this topic, and integrating personality dimensions on research on successful aging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the challenges of population aging is to ensure that there are enough trained professionals to meet the changing, specific needs of aging populations. The aim of this study was to describe the number, geographical distribution, and general characteristics of gerontological training programs offered by Latin American universities and to analyze their disciplinary content and the degree of similarity among programs. One hundred undergraduate and postgraduate programs with gerontological content were found to be offered by Latin American universities. Information on the institutional affiliation, academic level, management, length, and content of the programs was analyzed. Descriptive statistics were run and content analysis was performed on the programs' syllabuses to address the objectives of the study. Results show that despite being a relatively young region of the world, the majority of Latin American universities offer gerontological programs. However, the nature of this course offering seems to be quite diverse across countries. Moreover, the analysis of the programs' disciplinary content indicates that the program providers take a multidisciplinary approach to gerontology. The great diversity of programs and their multidisciplinary contents suggest a low degree of standardization of gerontological training in Latin America.

Older people's civic participation contributes to community development while at the same time providing opportunities for personal growth in later life. One important dimension of civic participation that has been largely underexplored is informal learning. The aim of this study is to explore the learnings experienced by Spanish older people through their participation in political organizations as one important type of participation that has received little attention in the literature to date. A total of 192 people aged 65 years and older and actively engaged in three kinds of political organizations participated in the study. Participants answered an open-ended question regarding learnings through political participation. Results show a range of informal learnings, relating to social, political, or instrumental domains. Both the type of organization and some sociodemographic and participatory characteristics are associated with the type of learnings experienced by participants. Implications for political organizations are discussed.

Research on older people's artistic participation has increased. However, the inclusion of a life course theory and the examination of differences between men and women in artistic trajectories is still scarce. In this study, we explored how life course transitions influence the artistic trajectories of older people throughout the lifecycle, and analyzed whether life course transitions affecting older artists' trajectories differed between men and women. We conducted semi-structured individual interviews with 30 older visual artists, craftsmen and craftswomen, and identified eight life course transitions in the participants' stories that affected their artistic trajectories. Five of these life course transitions were linked to the family domain and three to the work domain. Most were visibly different between men and women, and influenced the artistic trajectories of female and male artists in different ways. Our study expands on previous research on artistic participation among older adults by considering life course elements in the analysis of relationships between artistic trajectories and life transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most studies on the benefits of late life civic engagement have focused exclusively on formal volunteering. Older adults' political participation is much more overlooked. The current paper explores the benefits of long-term participation in political organizations as described by actively engaged Spanish older people. We used an adaptation of McAdams' life-story interview with 40 participants from three types of political organizations who occupy a responsible position within the organization. We identified three main themes in participants' answers: personal benefits, relational benefits, and community benefits. Overall, our results showed that the benefits arising from long-term political participation go far beyond the well-studied individual benefits that research on late-life volunteering has typically identified, and spread to relational and community areas. Social work practitioners should consider these benefits when they implement plans and programmes to promote healthy, active ways of aging, fostering age-friendly communities or reducing old-age social exclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the reasons why older people participate in sports. A total of 463 senior athletes (M = 61.4, SD = 5.5) who are actively engaged in competitive sports disciplines participated in this study. The participants indicated their degree of agreement with reasons for practicing sport on a 4-point Likert scale with 20 items, developed on the basis of a literature review on motivation theories in sports. These items were analyzed psychometrically. The exploratory factorial analysis revealed five components: competitiveness, interpersonal, cognitive, physical and emotional reasons. The most frequently reported reasons for participation were to feel healthier, to improve mood, and to release tension and stress. Analyses of variance showed significant differences in reasons for participating in sport based on sex, age, comparative health status, type of sport and number of competitive events attended per year. These findings could contribute to the development of age-specific sports promotion interventions tailored to different groups of older people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]