Older-Adult Playfulness: An Innovative Construct and Measurement for Healthy Aging Research

By Careen Yarnal and Xinyi Qian

‎”Few studies of adult playfulness exist, but limited research on older adults and playfulness suggests that playfulness in later life improves cognitive, emotional, social, and psychological functioning and healthy aging overall. Older adults represent a rapidly growing segment of the U.S. population, underscoring the need to understand the aging process. In this article, the authors report on the first three steps of a four-step, multimethod approach to test the hypothesis that playfulness is an important component of healthy aging in older adults. “

http://www.journalofplay.org/sites/www.journalofplay.org/files/pdf-articles/4-1-article-yarnal-older-adult-playfullness.pdf