Stress Reduction through Dance in Older Adults

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which movement-dance classes influence the mood and level of stress of adults aged 60 and older. By 2050, nearly 17% of the world’s population will consist of older adults (He, Goodkind, & Kowal, 2016). With this rapid growth comes the necessity to increase physiological and psychological care to ensure healthy aging. Dance and movement classes have been recently explored as a way to go about this. Facilitating dance/movement classes enables older adults to build community relationships, reduce levels of stress and depression, foster a healthy creativity, and encourage further physical and emotional growth (Kluge, Tang, Glick, LeCompte, & Willis, 2012). Although a plethora of research has been conducted on the effects dance-movement classes have on depression levels in older adults, little has been conducted on stress and mood levels. Therefore, in order to examine the stress and mood levels in older adults when provided dance-movement classes, six movement classes were facilitated in which a Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) were administered to measure changes in stress levels and mood and a qualitative focus-group to explore the experiences of four class participants. Results suggest that the movement dance classes increased positive affect, social involvement, physical movement, sense of belonging and friendship development, memory and cognitive health, and being in the moment and decreased stress levels. Additionally, researchers identified specific challenges related to recruiting older adults to participate in new community-based programming.The Ohio State University College of Social WorkNo embargoAcademic Major: Social Wor