Willimantic, Conn. – Eric Cerino ’14 of Stratford, a psychology major at Eastern Connecticut State University, will present his research project, “Investigating Subjective Age, Level of Activity and Depressive Symptoms in Older Adults” at the 18th Annual Posters on the Hill Conference in Washington, D.C. on April 28-29, 2014.
Subjective age is defined as how old one feels; the goal of Cerino’s research was to see if depression levels were impacted by how young a person feels and how active he or she is in society. “I wanted to tackle something that affects senior citizens,” said Cerino. “At the Trumbull Senior Center, I taught a computer course to seniors and fell in love with the idea of helping seniors. I have dedicated my research to them.”
The results of Cerino’s study indicated that seniors who had a more youthful subjective age reported fewer depressive symptoms. In addition, seniors who took part in more activity (both physical and cognitive exercises) tended to have a more youthful subjective age. Cerino, mentored by Eastern Psychology Professor Jennifer Leszczynski, had one of 60 posters selected from approximately 600 submissions. All presenters will discuss the impact of their research experience with members of Congress during the conference.