Self Efficacy In The Health-Related Quality Of Life For Aging Adults
RESEARCH PROJECT
Self-Efficacy and its Role in the Health-Related Quality of Life for Aging Adults
RANZOLINE OCHOLA
Research Theme
Health and Wellbeing
Research Title
Self-Efficacy and its Role in the Health-Related Quality of Life for Aging Adults
Introduction
Health-related quality of life is a concept that is multi-dimensional, including domains such as social, emotional, mental, and physical functioning. Self-efficacy, on the other hand, is defined as an individual’s belief in their capabilities to achieve performance levels they set themselves for social, emotional, mental, and physical functions (Wang et al, 2013: p222). Additionally, self-efficacy …show more content…
also determines how the individual will think, behave, feel, and motivate him or herself, which is dependent on their motivational, affective, cognitive, and selection processes. Individual accomplishment and wellbeing are critical aspects in the quality of life enjoyed by aging adults, especially health-related quality of life, and they are enhanced if the individual has a positive sense of self-efficacy. Moreover, aging adults with positive self-efficacy are able to foster enhanced engrossment and intrinsic interest in an array of physical and intellectual activities that aid in improving physical and mental health respectively (Kozar-Westman et al, 2013). As efficacious adults age, they can regain their health faster in the event of any health-related setbacks, while they attribute failure to do so on a deficiency in knowledge and skills, which they still feel able to acquire. Aging adults with self-efficacy tend to have an outlook that enhances their accomplishments, reduces stress, and lowers depressive episodes.
Research Question
What is the impact of self-efficacy, life satisfaction, and subjective wellbeing on the health-related quality of life in aging adults?
Research Aim This research study will be investigate the influence of self-efficacy and other related concepts, such as life satisfaction and subjective wellbeing, on health-related quality of life in aging adults.
Objectives
To assess the effect of self-efficacy on life satisfaction in aging adults
To establish whether objective health measures are significantly correlated with life satisfaction or subjective wellbeing
To assess whether self-perceived health status is significantly correlated with life satisfaction and subjective wellbeing
Literature Review Health challenges and decline in cognitive ability as adults grow old could lead to a decline in their perceptions of control and competence, particularly with regards to cognitive and physical activities. According to Aberdeen & Bye (2013: p12), the most essential health feature for aging adults is their ability to control their lives, where having increased capabilities in internal locus control enables them to protect themselves from stressful events that could impact on their health, such as depression. In this case, self-efficacious individuals and those with an internal health locus will be more likely to seek and benefit from educational health programs, which are in contrast to non-self-efficacious aging adults and have an external locus of control (Van Wagenen et al, 2013). Aging adults with low self-efficacy and an external locus of control, tend to view situational and environmental factors as being of more importance than internal factors. Consequently, they tend towards being fatalistic, while attributing their failures, including health failures, on to chance and/or other external factors. Caprara et al (2012: p1293) notes that self-efficacy in aging adults predicts their ability to maintain cognitive function, offering evidence that self-efficacy is a crucial aspect in how individuals in old age perceive their capabilities to successfully perform specific behaviors. This, in turn, influences their interaction patterns, leading to successful aging and high health-related quality of life. In aging adults, low self-efficacy has a negative impact on the activities that they choose to partake in, as well as how they react emotionally (Stephan, 2011). Particularly, Cha et al, (2012: p83) notes that elderly people who have a negative self-efficacy are more likely to curtail their range of activity, while also showing declined perseverance and effort levels for those activities they do partake in. This evidence of avoidance from non-efficacious elderly adults contributes to increased perception of themselves as unable to give functional disability self-reports, especially as they feel guilty and defensive from their inability to successfully complete their tasks (Payne et al, 2012). However, (Cheng et al, 2013: p74) notes that because of the numerous variables in determining successful aging, there is no one factor that can be identified as the most critical. Research studies on aging have mostly focused on the decline in cognitive and physical functioning. Decline in cognitive and physical health has been interpreted commonly as an inevitable and natural aging consequence. In addition, methodological approaches and standard evaluations normally concentrate on how elderly adults in the severely impaired group function, as well as on the average/mean shifts across age-range (Nagy et al, 2012). However, these studies, in their approach, seem to obscure the important range and heterogeneity in function that is evident in populations based in communities. Recent literature suggests that perceived quality of life and healthy aging does not simply depend on the maintenance of mental and physical health, instead being about the maximization of the elderly individual’s psychological resources. (Cramm et al, 2013) provides compelling evidence that the elderly person’s resources have a significantly positive correlation with self-efficacy, as well as other sub-components like life satisfaction wellbeing, and personal mastery. Thus, while better management of morbidity, improved preventative care services, and lifestyle changes may benefit the elderly person in relation to longevity and physical health, subjective health-related quality of life is also dependent on other factors.
Methodology
The main aim of the current research study is to investigate the effects of self-efficacy on health-related quality of life of elderly individuals in a residential care home. The research study will be qualitative in nature and collect qualitative data. A qualitative research paradigm will be the best fit for this study because quality of life perceptions and experiences cannot be sufficiently collected using quantitative measures (Neale, 2009). It will also be easier to organize and interpret the data more meaningfully. The research design for this study will be descriptive in nature, specifically because it is the best fit for answering the questions raised in the study. This research design is most useful where information is required on the current status of a phenomenon, as well as describing the conditions and variables of the situation (Neale, 2009; p41). The current study will be set in a residential home for the elderly in Kenya. It will include (n=30) residents of the home, of which (n=10) will be males and (n=20) will be females. The participants will be selected through random probability sampling, which will ensure that all the elderly patients have an equal chance of selection, reducing study bias. The participants will be aged between 70-79 years.
Qualitative data will be collected using sections of the MacArthur Research Network on Successful Aging Community Study interviews. The MacArthur question battery is a wide ranging face-to-face interview that was designed for home administration, which covers performance and functioning assessments across multiple dimensions (Tabbarah et al, 2002). This study will use items in the MacArthur Battery that focus on self-efficacy to act as predicator variables. The dependent variables will be items related to subjective wellbeing and life satisfaction, which are important in health-related quality of life. In order to examine the degree to which the present study’s results will be influenced by potential confounding of objective and subjective ratings of health, linear combinations of the study’s independent variables will be assesses for any significant correlations to the study’s dependent variables. In the analysis phase of the study, an investigation will be conducted to determine if there is a significant influence of separate predictor variable combinations on the dependent variables. This will make it possible to determine the most relevant predictor variables to health-related quality of life in the elderly, as well as identify potential opportunities for interventions aimed at improving health-related quality of life in the elderly.
Ethical Considerations The participants will be chosen for the study after consent is attained from the administration of the residential home, after which the participants will be informed on the study’s voluntary nature and explanations made that they have the right to withdraw from the study at any time they wished. They will also be informed about the study’s purpose, procedures, and expected duration, as well as any prospective benefits of the research. In addition, they will also be informed about any limits in confidentiality, including data coding, archiving, sharing, and disposal and instances where confidentiality must be broken (Bowling, 2009). The participants will also be given information concerning how data collected from them is to be used and consent secured for these uses.
References
Aberdeen, L., & Bye, L.
(January 01, 2013). Challenges for Australian sociology: Critical ageing research - ageing well? Journal of Sociology Australian Sociological Association, 49, 1, 3-21.
Caprara, G. V., Alessandri, G., & Eisenberg, N. (January 01, 2012). Prosociality: the contribution of traits, values, and self-efficacy beliefs. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102, 6, 1289-1303.
Cha, N. H., Seo, E. J., & Sok, S. R. (January 01, 2012). Factors influencing the successful aging of older Korean adults. Contemporary Nurse, 41, 1, 78-87.
Cheng, S. T., Lam, L. C., Kwok, T., Ng, N. S., & Fung, A. W. (January 01, 2013). Self-efficacy is associated with less burden and more gains from behavioral problems of Alzheimer 's disease in Hong Kong Chinese caregivers. The Gerontologist, 53, 1, 71-80.
Cramm, J. M., Hartgerink, J. M., Nieboer, A. P., Steyerberg, E. W., MacKenbach, J. P., & Bakker, T. J. (February 01, 2013). Understanding older patients ' self-management abilities: Functional loss, self-management, and well-being. Quality of Life Research, 22, 1, 85-92.
Kozar-Westman, M., Troutman-Jordan, M., & Nies, M. A. (September 01, 2013). Successful Aging among Assisted Living Community Older Adults. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 45, 3, …show more content…
238-246.
Nagy, C. L., Bernard, M. A., & Hodes, R. J. (June 01, 2012). National Institute on Aging at Middle Age—it’s Past, Present, and Future. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 60, 6, 1165-1169.
Neale, J.
(2009). Research methods for health and social care. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Payne, B. R., Jackson, J. J., Hill, P. L., Gao, X., Roberts, B. W., & Stine-Morrow, E. A. (January 01, 2012). Memory self-efficacy predicts responsiveness to inductive reasoning training in older adults. The Journals of Gerontology. Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 67, 1, 27-35.
Stephan, Y., Caudroit, J., & Chalabaev, A. (January 01, 2011). Subjective health and memory self-efficacy as mediators in the relation between subjective age and life satisfaction among older adults. Aging & Mental Health, 15, 4, 428-436.
Tabbarah, M., Crimmins, E. M., & Seeman, T. E. (January 01, 2002). The relationship between cognitive and physical performance: MacArthur Studies of Successful Aging. The Journals of Gerontology. Series A, Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, 57, 4, 228-235.
Van Wagenen, A., Driskell, J., & Bradford, J. (January 01, 2013). ' 'I 'm still raring to go ' ': Successful aging among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender older adults. Journal of Aging Studies, 27, 1, 1-14.
Wang, K., Chen, C., & Shie, A. (January 01, 2013). GAM: a comprehensive successful ageing model. Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science, 14, 3,
213-226.
Self-Efficacy and its Role in the Health-Related Quality of Life for Aging Adults
RANZOLINE OCHOLA
Research Theme
Health and Wellbeing
Research Title
Self-Efficacy and its Role in the Health-Related Quality of Life for Aging Adults
Introduction
Health-related quality of life is a concept that is multi-dimensional, including domains such as social, emotional, mental, and physical functioning. Self-efficacy, on the other hand, is defined as an individual’s belief in their capabilities to achieve performance levels they set themselves for social, emotional, mental, and physical functions (Wang et al, 2013: p222). Additionally, self-efficacy …show more content…
also determines how the individual will think, behave, feel, and motivate him or herself, which is dependent on their motivational, affective, cognitive, and selection processes. Individual accomplishment and wellbeing are critical aspects in the quality of life enjoyed by aging adults, especially health-related quality of life, and they are enhanced if the individual has a positive sense of self-efficacy. Moreover, aging adults with positive self-efficacy are able to foster enhanced engrossment and intrinsic interest in an array of physical and intellectual activities that aid in improving physical and mental health respectively (Kozar-Westman et al, 2013). As efficacious adults age, they can regain their health faster in the event of any health-related setbacks, while they attribute failure to do so on a deficiency in knowledge and skills, which they still feel able to acquire. Aging adults with self-efficacy tend to have an outlook that enhances their accomplishments, reduces stress, and lowers depressive episodes.
Research Question
What is the impact of self-efficacy, life satisfaction, and subjective wellbeing on the health-related quality of life in aging adults?
Research Aim This research study will be investigate the influence of self-efficacy and other related concepts, such as life satisfaction and subjective wellbeing, on health-related quality of life in aging adults.
Objectives
To assess the effect of self-efficacy on life satisfaction in aging adults
To establish whether objective health measures are significantly correlated with life satisfaction or subjective wellbeing
To assess whether self-perceived health status is significantly correlated with life satisfaction and subjective wellbeing
Literature Review Health challenges and decline in cognitive ability as adults grow old could lead to a decline in their perceptions of control and competence, particularly with regards to cognitive and physical activities. According to Aberdeen & Bye (2013: p12), the most essential health feature for aging adults is their ability to control their lives, where having increased capabilities in internal locus control enables them to protect themselves from stressful events that could impact on their health, such as depression. In this case, self-efficacious individuals and those with an internal health locus will be more likely to seek and benefit from educational health programs, which are in contrast to non-self-efficacious aging adults and have an external locus of control (Van Wagenen et al, 2013). Aging adults with low self-efficacy and an external locus of control, tend to view situational and environmental factors as being of more importance than internal factors. Consequently, they tend towards being fatalistic, while attributing their failures, including health failures, on to chance and/or other external factors. Caprara et al (2012: p1293) notes that self-efficacy in aging adults predicts their ability to maintain cognitive function, offering evidence that self-efficacy is a crucial aspect in how individuals in old age perceive their capabilities to successfully perform specific behaviors. This, in turn, influences their interaction patterns, leading to successful aging and high health-related quality of life. In aging adults, low self-efficacy has a negative impact on the activities that they choose to partake in, as well as how they react emotionally (Stephan, 2011). Particularly, Cha et al, (2012: p83) notes that elderly people who have a negative self-efficacy are more likely to curtail their range of activity, while also showing declined perseverance and effort levels for those activities they do partake in. This evidence of avoidance from non-efficacious elderly adults contributes to increased perception of themselves as unable to give functional disability self-reports, especially as they feel guilty and defensive from their inability to successfully complete their tasks (Payne et al, 2012). However, (Cheng et al, 2013: p74) notes that because of the numerous variables in determining successful aging, there is no one factor that can be identified as the most critical. Research studies on aging have mostly focused on the decline in cognitive and physical functioning. Decline in cognitive and physical health has been interpreted commonly as an inevitable and natural aging consequence. In addition, methodological approaches and standard evaluations normally concentrate on how elderly adults in the severely impaired group function, as well as on the average/mean shifts across age-range (Nagy et al, 2012). However, these studies, in their approach, seem to obscure the important range and heterogeneity in function that is evident in populations based in communities. Recent literature suggests that perceived quality of life and healthy aging does not simply depend on the maintenance of mental and physical health, instead being about the maximization of the elderly individual’s psychological resources. (Cramm et al, 2013) provides compelling evidence that the elderly person’s resources have a significantly positive correlation with self-efficacy, as well as other sub-components like life satisfaction wellbeing, and personal mastery. Thus, while better management of morbidity, improved preventative care services, and lifestyle changes may benefit the elderly person in relation to longevity and physical health, subjective health-related quality of life is also dependent on other factors.
Methodology
The main aim of the current research study is to investigate the effects of self-efficacy on health-related quality of life of elderly individuals in a residential care home. The research study will be qualitative in nature and collect qualitative data. A qualitative research paradigm will be the best fit for this study because quality of life perceptions and experiences cannot be sufficiently collected using quantitative measures (Neale, 2009). It will also be easier to organize and interpret the data more meaningfully. The research design for this study will be descriptive in nature, specifically because it is the best fit for answering the questions raised in the study. This research design is most useful where information is required on the current status of a phenomenon, as well as describing the conditions and variables of the situation (Neale, 2009; p41). The current study will be set in a residential home for the elderly in Kenya. It will include (n=30) residents of the home, of which (n=10) will be males and (n=20) will be females. The participants will be selected through random probability sampling, which will ensure that all the elderly patients have an equal chance of selection, reducing study bias. The participants will be aged between 70-79 years.
Qualitative data will be collected using sections of the MacArthur Research Network on Successful Aging Community Study interviews. The MacArthur question battery is a wide ranging face-to-face interview that was designed for home administration, which covers performance and functioning assessments across multiple dimensions (Tabbarah et al, 2002). This study will use items in the MacArthur Battery that focus on self-efficacy to act as predicator variables. The dependent variables will be items related to subjective wellbeing and life satisfaction, which are important in health-related quality of life. In order to examine the degree to which the present study’s results will be influenced by potential confounding of objective and subjective ratings of health, linear combinations of the study’s independent variables will be assesses for any significant correlations to the study’s dependent variables. In the analysis phase of the study, an investigation will be conducted to determine if there is a significant influence of separate predictor variable combinations on the dependent variables. This will make it possible to determine the most relevant predictor variables to health-related quality of life in the elderly, as well as identify potential opportunities for interventions aimed at improving health-related quality of life in the elderly.
Ethical Considerations The participants will be chosen for the study after consent is attained from the administration of the residential home, after which the participants will be informed on the study’s voluntary nature and explanations made that they have the right to withdraw from the study at any time they wished. They will also be informed about the study’s purpose, procedures, and expected duration, as well as any prospective benefits of the research. In addition, they will also be informed about any limits in confidentiality, including data coding, archiving, sharing, and disposal and instances where confidentiality must be broken (Bowling, 2009). The participants will also be given information concerning how data collected from them is to be used and consent secured for these uses.
References
Aberdeen, L., & Bye, L.
(January 01, 2013). Challenges for Australian sociology: Critical ageing research - ageing well? Journal of Sociology Australian Sociological Association, 49, 1, 3-21.
Caprara, G. V., Alessandri, G., & Eisenberg, N. (January 01, 2012). Prosociality: the contribution of traits, values, and self-efficacy beliefs. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102, 6, 1289-1303.
Cha, N. H., Seo, E. J., & Sok, S. R. (January 01, 2012). Factors influencing the successful aging of older Korean adults. Contemporary Nurse, 41, 1, 78-87.
Cheng, S. T., Lam, L. C., Kwok, T., Ng, N. S., & Fung, A. W. (January 01, 2013). Self-efficacy is associated with less burden and more gains from behavioral problems of Alzheimer 's disease in Hong Kong Chinese caregivers. The Gerontologist, 53, 1, 71-80.
Cramm, J. M., Hartgerink, J. M., Nieboer, A. P., Steyerberg, E. W., MacKenbach, J. P., & Bakker, T. J. (February 01, 2013). Understanding older patients ' self-management abilities: Functional loss, self-management, and well-being. Quality of Life Research, 22, 1, 85-92.
Kozar-Westman, M., Troutman-Jordan, M., & Nies, M. A. (September 01, 2013). Successful Aging among Assisted Living Community Older Adults. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 45, 3, …show more content…
238-246.
Nagy, C. L., Bernard, M. A., & Hodes, R. J. (June 01, 2012). National Institute on Aging at Middle Age—it’s Past, Present, and Future. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 60, 6, 1165-1169.
Neale, J.
(2009). Research methods for health and social care. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Payne, B. R., Jackson, J. J., Hill, P. L., Gao, X., Roberts, B. W., & Stine-Morrow, E. A. (January 01, 2012). Memory self-efficacy predicts responsiveness to inductive reasoning training in older adults. The Journals of Gerontology. Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 67, 1, 27-35.
Stephan, Y., Caudroit, J., & Chalabaev, A. (January 01, 2011). Subjective health and memory self-efficacy as mediators in the relation between subjective age and life satisfaction among older adults. Aging & Mental Health, 15, 4, 428-436.
Tabbarah, M., Crimmins, E. M., & Seeman, T. E. (January 01, 2002). The relationship between cognitive and physical performance: MacArthur Studies of Successful Aging. The Journals of Gerontology. Series A, Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, 57, 4, 228-235.
Van Wagenen, A., Driskell, J., & Bradford, J. (January 01, 2013). ' 'I 'm still raring to go ' ': Successful aging among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender older adults. Journal of Aging Studies, 27, 1, 1-14.
Wang, K., Chen, C., & Shie, A. (January 01, 2013). GAM: a comprehensive successful ageing model. Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science, 14, 3,
213-226.