THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERSONALITY TRAITS IN SENIORS WITH DIFFERENT AEROBIC PHYSICAL ACTIVITY EXPERIENCE.

Introduction: personality traits are stable and function as basis of an individuals' behavior not only in daily activities, but also regarding their choice of physical exercise type, intensity and frequency (Allen Greenlee, & Jones, 2011). Materials and methods: participants were 56 healthy Latvian seniors, aged from 65 to 85 years (M = 71.88, SD = 4.92, 28% male). Participants were divided into three groups based on the length and regularity of aerobic physical exercise in their daily lives. The data were obtained with self-report questionnaire - Latvian Personality questionnaire (LPA-v3, Perepjolkina & Reņģe, 2013), a modified version of Social Determinants of Health Behaviours questionnaire (FINBALT, 2014). Results: there were significant correlations between longer involvement in aerobic exercise and lower levels of Neuroticism (r = -.29, p < .05). Vice versa results were found in seniors with regularity of aerobic physical exercise in their daily lives, with significant correlation between lower levels of Neuroticism subscales Anxiety (r = -.29, p < .05), poor stress (r = -.37, p < .01), Agreeableness subscale Compliance group (r = -.28, p < .01) and higher levels of Extraversion subscale Liveliness correlated positively with the third group (r = -.31, p < .05). Neurotism subscale poor stress resilience correlated positively with seniors with short-term regular aerobic physical exercise experience (r = .33, p < .05). Conclusions: the study results indicate that personality dimensions Neuroticism and Neuroticism subscales, Extraversion subscale Agreeableness subscale might be related to the length of involvement in aerobic physical exercise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]