Development of a social contact self-efficacy scale for 'third agers' in Japan

"Third agers" are people over retirement age in relatively good health; third agers make up an increasing percentage of the global population as the world's longevity increases. Therefore, the challenge of prolonging a healthy third age and shortening the unhealthy period during the "fourth age" in the global health and social contexts is important in this process. However, no means to measure and support this has been developed as yet. We developed the Social Contact Self-Efficacy Scale for Third Agers (SET) and evaluated its reliability and validity.

We used a self-administered mail survey covering 2,600 randomly selected independent older adults living in Yokohama, Japan. The construct validity of the SET was determined using exploratory factor and confirmatory factor analyses. Its criterion-related validity was assessed using the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES), the Japan Science and Technology Agency Index of Competence (JST-IC), and subjective health status.

In total, 1,139 older adults provided responses. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses identified eight items within two factors: social space mobility and social support relationship. The final model had a Cronbach's alpha 0.834, goodness-of-fit index 0.976, adjusted goodness-of-fit index 0.955, comparative fit index 0.982, and root mean square error of approximation 0.050. There was good correlation between scale scores and the GSES (r = 0.552, p < 0.001), JST-IC (r = 0.495, p < 0.001) and subjective health status (r = 0.361, p < 0.001).

The SET showed sufficient reliability and validity to assess self-efficacy in promoting social contact among third agers. This scale may help third agers in gaining and expanding opportunities for social contact, which can improve their physical health and quality of life and contribute to care prevention and healthy longevity.