[Social representations of the participation of third age groups in leisure activities]

The objective of this research is to study the social representations concerning the participation of third age groups in leisure activities. Thirteen individual interviews were accomplished with the co-operation of men and women over sixty-years-old in a Third Age Coexistence Center. The discourses were analyzed starting from the technique of content analysis, followed by discussion based on the Theory of Social Representations. The "marks of old age", such as, solitude, disease and lack of activity, are the reasons elderly people take part in this kind of leisure activities in the Third Age Coexistence Center. They belong to the "Third Age family" and find medicine and therapeutic assistance for the "signs of old age". The participation in leisure activities represents the "exit from rock-bottom", and brings meaning to the life of elders as well as a sense of rebirth.