The Effectiveness of Stress Management Training on Psychological Health, Self-Efficacy and Happiness in Elderly Women with Moderate Depression

The psychological characteristics of the elderly decline due to reduction of physical and mental functioning. Therefore, intervention seems to be essential specifically in elderly women suffered from moderate depression, with the aim of improving psychological health, self-efficacy and happiness. Therefore, the study aimed to determine the effectiveness of stress management training (SMT) on psychological health, self-efficacy and happiness in elderly women with moderate depression. The current study was a quasi-experimental with pretest-posttest and control group design. The statistical population included elderly women with depression residing in nursing homes of Tehran, Iran in 2019, among whom 60 women were selected through purposive sampling and inclusion criteria and allocated randomly into two equal groups. The experimental group received ten 90-minute sessions of SMT and the control group didn’t receive any training at the same time. Research tool included Najarian & Davodi’s psychological health scale, Sherer & et al.’s self-efficacy questionnaire, Argyle & Lu’s happiness questionnaire and Yesavage & Sheikh’s geriatric depression. Data were analyzed using univariate analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) in the SPSS-22 software. Results indicated that there was a significant difference between experimental and control groups in terms of psychological health, self-efficacy and happiness in posttest phase. In other words, SMT resulted in improvement of psychological health, self-efficacy and happiness in elderly women with depression (P<0.01). Given the effectiveness of SMT, it is recommended that health professionals and therapists take advantages of STM along with other training methods in order to improve the elderly’s psychological health, self-efficacy and happiness.