Abstract

A cross-sectional longitudinal questionnaire survey was conducted in order to clarify how age and the duration of participation in a community health promotion program affects participants' mental health status and the motivation to maintain periodical exercise behavior (n=150, male 39, female 111, ages 52 to 82,). The results were as follows: 1) Participants who had been on the program and had done exercise for 2 years had higher average values than the non-participant group in the motivation factors to maintain periodic exercise and their reinforcement factors, although the average values of some factors varied according to length of participation. 2) “Daily hassles”and “lowered life satisfaction” were decreased in relation to length of participation period. 3) The duration of participation had a negative causal effect on perceived strength of chronic life stress according to an SEM analysis (χ2(23)=29.78, p.=0.156, GFI=0.955, AGFI=0.913, RMSEA=0.048). 4) The perceived strength of chronic life stress had a negative causal effect on the motivation to maintain periodic exercise behavior through the factors that enforce motivation. A different pattern was observed between the junior group (52-64) and the senior group (65-82) in this causal effect (χ2(45)=52.61, p.=0.203, GFI=0.923, AGFI=0.847, RMSEA=0.036). Verf.-Referat