Wellbeing
Does practising Tai Chi make older adults happier, and why?
Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC
Older adults who did eight weeks of Tai Chi reported more confidence in managing their emotions and higher wellbeing than a control group, and part of the wellbeing gain ran through that emotional confidence.
Study at a glance
- Design
- RCT — Two-arm randomised trial: 8 weeks of supervised 24-form Tai Chi (five 30-min sessions a week) versus a control group keeping usual routines; pre/post self-report with blinded assessors.
- N
- N=60 · 60 healthy adults aged 60+ randomised, 30 per group; no dropouts reported.
- Population
- Healthy community-dwelling older adults in Zhengzhou, China
- Outcome
- Emotional regulation efficacy, positive affect, negative affect and total subjective wellbeing (self-report scales)
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Key findings
The control group showed no significant changes, whereas the Tai Chi group improved on all measures. After the programme the Tai Chi group scored higher than controls on emotional regulation efficacy, positive affect, the negative-affect scale and overall wellbeing, with medium-to-large effect sizes. Change in regulation efficacy accounted for about a fifth of the effect on negative affect and about a sixth of the effect on total wellbeing, but did not mediate the effect on positive affect.
Methodology
Sixty healthy adults aged 60 or over were randomly split into a Tai Chi group and a control group of 30 each. The Tai Chi group practised a simplified 24-form routine five times a week for 30 minutes over 8 weeks with an instructor, while controls kept their usual lives. Both groups filled in questionnaires on emotional regulation efficacy (belief in one's ability to manage emotions) and subjective wellbeing before and after, and a mediation analysis asked whether change in regulation efficacy explained change in wellbeing.
Limitations
The sample was small and came from community centres in one city, so it may not represent older adults generally. The control group did no alternative activity, so benefits could come from social contact, attention or general exercise rather than Tai Chi specifically, and all outcomes were self-reported by people who knew whether they were practising. There was no follow-up beyond 8 weeks, lifestyle factors were not monitored, and the mediation analysis uses change scores measured at the same time, so it cannot establish that efficacy changed first. The paper describes a rise in the negative-affect score as an improvement, which implies the scale is reverse-scored, but this is not stated clearly.
How this study connects
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