Increasing practitioners' knowledge of participation among elderly adults in senior center activities

The research reported in this paper attempted to identify predictors of senior center participation and to ascertain why there has been a decline in the number of individuals participating at senior centers in recent years. The research reports the results of a survey conducted among senior center participants in an 11-county area in the Nortex Area Agency on Aging region. A similar survey was conducted among the directors of 18 senior centers in the same region to determine their perspective on predictors of senior center participation. A qualitative review of senior center participants, directors, and non-participants was conducted to determine if there are trends for future research that were not captured in the quantitative analysis. Five predictors of senior center participation were found to be statistically significant: (1) Attendance at faith-based organizations (e.g., church); (2) Number of senior adults participating at any given time; (3) Number of center activities provided for senior adults; (4) The age of the participants; and (5) transportation available for participants. Although the variance explained was only 16%, the qualitative assessment validates the outcomes from the quantitative analysis. Therefore, eight recommendations are made for improving senior center participation that can be used in didactic instruction at the university level or in continuing education programs. In addition, we include additional questions for future research to identify other potential predictors of senior center participation.