THEATER AS AN INTERVENTION: FACILITATING A SENSE OF CONNECTION. (16th November 2018) - Dunkle, R
Abstract: Social isolation has a detrimental effect on the well-being of older adults. Creative arts interventions, such as participating in a theater group, promote social contact and encourage creativity, possibly reducing isolation. Through theater, participants can build community to share experiences and build confidence. A professionally run theater group comprised of low-income older adults met for 12 weeks to learn basic skills and perform a play. Using a pre-post questionnaire, data were gathered from the treatment group (n=13) who participated in the class and a non-participating comparison group (n=7) to identify potential program effects on measures of social connectedness including social isolation, community belonging, and social exclusion. Participants were African American living in low-income housing in an urban area. The average age of the sample was 65, 29% were men, 81% had at least a high school degree, and 67% reported good to excellent health. The average number of ADL and IADL limitations in the total sample were 1.5 and 1.7, respectively. The treatment group had a smaller proportion of men and was more likely to be widowed than the comparison group. Results of linear mixed modeling with listwise deletion showed that treatment and comparison groups had a significantly different trajectory in their sense of community belonging, the treatment group having a positive slope and the comparison group having a negative slope. With social exclusion, the treatment group did not change over time but social exclusion increased for the comparison group. Instruction facilitating interaction to bolster social connectedness will be discussed.