Older People's Performance on the Profile of Mood States (POMS)

This paper reports on the psychometric properties and feasibility of using the Profile of Mood State (POMS) with older adults to establish its cross-age usefulness in assessing emotional states. The POMS Scale, along with measures of functional status and Bradburn's Affect Balance Scale, was administered to 505 older adults 65 and over recruited from 4 different locations. Exploratory factor analysis indicated a similar factor structure for both the older adult and the original standardized samples for five of the six original factors (Tension, Depression, Anger, Fatigue and Vigor). There were enough differences between the sixth original factor (Confusion) and older-persons confusion factor to warrant a different scoring for older samples. Tests of validity demonstrated concurrent relationships of the POMS scores with indicators of competence and psychological well-being. Cross-sectional age comparisons on the POMS factors inidcated that older subjects appeared relatively healthier than the original samples on all the symptom scales except Vigot. In this case, the older sample demonstrated less vigor or positive effect. The research affirmed the validity of the POMS and is recommended for use with at least minimally competent older groups.