Investigating the Factors Affecting the Promotion of Self-Concept in the Elderly: A review article

One of the psychological characteristics decreased with age is self-concept. Self-concept is the mental image of every person. The self-concept of the elderly is also based on their experiences during life stages. The aim of this study was to determine the factors affecting the promotion of self-concept in the elderly and to discuss them.

This review study was conducted through searching IranMedex Google Scholar, SID, PubMed and Scopus databases. In this research, the full-text studies published in English and Persian all over the world from 2008 to 2018 and focused on self-concept and elderly (in English and Persian) were investigated. After qualitative evaluation of studies, they were assessed based on relevance. Then, the best findings were chosen.

The findings showed that the improvement of self-concept in the elderly was related to some factors such as:  body image, fitness and appearance, improvement of quality of life (QoL), improvement of self-esteem and memory review, low and moderate intensity aerobic training, high education, being married and having different roles in different social environments.

As people with low self-concept experience a sense of inadequacy and worthlessness, it is imperative that caregivers adopt self-concept strategies appropriate to each elderly in order to improve the QoL in the elderly.