Social Skills and Psychosocial Problems among the Elderly

The disruption of communication behaviors as a result of aging led to the hypothesis that elderly subjects would exhibit more problematic social skills than younger subjects. These social skills deficits were further hypothesized to be associated with rejection from others and a number of psychosocial problems. Elderly and young subjects engaged in two different interactions, with an age-matched partner, and an age-unmatched partner, from which social skills and interpersonal rejection were assessed. Subjects also completed self-report measures of social skills and psychosocial problems. Elderly subjects did not differ from young subjects on most measures of social skill, nor on the measure of interpersonal rejection. However, the elderly reported more symptoms of dysphoria and lower self-esteem than did young subjects. The lack of young-elderly differences in social skills may be due to the high level of functioning evident in the elderly sample.