The Effects of a selected yoga training course on the Self-Esteem of Depressed Elderly Women

Introduction and

Aging and depression are two main factors in reducing self - esteem in individuals. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of a long - term yoga training course on depressed elderly women's self – esteem.

The present research was the empirical half with practical nature. The statistical community was the elderly women of Shahrekord senior's house. The number of 90 elderly women with the age of 60- 85 was deliberately selected. They were elderly people who were depressed based on the Beck 's depression questionnaire and low self-esteem based on Rosenberg's self-esteem questionnaire. Then, two groups of experimental (n = 15) and control (n = 15) were selected randomly. The training program was conducted for eight weeks and three days a week. 48 hours after the last session, the Rosenberg self-esteem questionnaire was completed by the elderly. The researcher then followed up the training program by attending the senior's house for 1 month and a follow-up test was carried out. In order to investigate the hypothesis of the research, MANOVA analysis was used. In order to check the co-variance equations, the Box test was used and the Levine test was used to determine the variance of the scores. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 23 at a significant level (p Findings: After eight weeks of yoga training, the difference between the experimental and control groups was significant in post-test (p = 0.001) and follow-up (p = 0.001).

According to the results, it seems that selected yoga training with increasing self-esteem in depressed elderly can be recommended as a low-cost and fun way to improve self-esteem and prevent decreasing self-esteem in depressed elderly people.