Intervention study on support exchange: An Intergenerational program

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To investigate the effectiveness of social support exchange for improving the subjective well-being of the elderly, we conducted an intervention study, which involved home visiting by nursing students to elderly women aged 60 and over. The elderly were asked to tell their life-course events to the students in order to help them to make a report for their study.The elderly subjects (n=15; mean age=72.3) were chosen from all the 121 female elderly residents living in a small collective housing in Tokyo Metropolitan Area. The ten fourth-year nursing students had been trained to learn basic skills in counseling and communication during a four-day session, prior to the intervention. It lasted for two months, during which the students visited the subjects several times (2.8 times on average). Comparing before and after the intervention, the elderly subjects showed positive changes in majority of the indices regarding subjective well-being and perception toward young generation. As for the influences on the students, they also showed more positive attitudes toward the elderly in general after the two-month period.The findings of our study were limited because of its small sample size and lack of proper control group. Also, the training was intensive so that it may not be suitable for large-scale interventions such as one using high school students as intervenes. Further studies are necessary to confirm the effectiveness of intergenerational programs on the subjective well-being of the elderly and the perception of younger generation toward the aged.