Effects of The Stress Coping Program on Coping Abilities and Stress Level of the Elderly in Mueang Nonthaburi District

Abstract

An appropriate stress coping program for the elderly will enable them to have better stress coping abilities. Elderly people with good stress coping ability will reduced their stress and have a better quality of life. The objective of this pre-experimental  research was to compare the stress coping abilities and stress levels of the elderly before and after joining the stress coping program. The one-group pretest posttest design was used for this research. The study population was the elderly in Mueang Nonthaburi  District who had joined the health services of Boromarajonani College of Nursing, Changwat Nonthaburi in 2014. Forty-five volunteers aged 60-75 years with moderate stress levels were purposively selected into an experimental group. The stress coping program was constructed by applying the concepts of Carl Rogers’ client-centered counseling theory, and Orawan Ronran’s stress management program. This program comprised the following five consecutive activities: building rapport, breathing practice, muscle relaxation practice, meditation practice and elderly-centered group counseling. The experimental group joined one activity a week for five weeks. The stress coping ability and stress level data of the elderly were collected by Nithipun Bunperm’s Coping Ability Test and Suwat Mahatnirankun’s Suanprung Stress Test, which had reliability of .84 and .91 respectively. The data were analyzed by using percentage, mean, standard deviation and paired-samples t- test.

The findings revealed that after joining the stress coping program, the elderly had higher stress coping abilities but lower stress levels than before at the statistical significance level of .05. These indicated that the stress coping program was appropriate for the elderly. Therefore, the stress coping program should be applied to the elderly in Nonthaburi province.