תחושת רווחה לאחר פעילות גופנית ולאחר פעילות חברתית

Subjective well-being has been studied extensively among the aged (Larson, 1978; Cutler, 1979; Palmore & Kivett, 1977). Nevertheless, the relative contribution of various factors to the overall well-being, reported by older persons, in not clear. The present study examined self-reports of well-being by 58–80 yr old kibbutz members engaged regularly in physecal activity, and compared this to the subjective well-being reported by age-natched group of kibbutz members participating regularly in social – intellectual activity such as lectures followed by discussions. Well-being was measured in both groups immediately following the activity by Cantril Scale (1965) and the Bradburn Scale (1969). Higher well-being score on both scales was found among physically active group as compared tothe social activity group (p<0.01). These results suggest that physical activity improves the subjective well-being of aged persons to a greater extent than other forms of social activity. Further studies are needed to determine whether this is a long – lasting effect, and to what extent the present results represent pre-existing differences between persons preferring physical activity and those who do not engage in such activities throughout life. No significant differences were found between sexes, and there was no interaction between group membership and sex. However, physically active women tended to have higher well-being scores than socially active women, on both scales. This finding when taken together with previous findings, according to which in the general population males over 65 tended to have higher scores than females (Spritzer & Snyder, 1974), suggests that in this age group, women may benefit more from physical activity.