The Healing Function and Institutional Construction of Aesthetic Education for the Elderly from the Perspective of Active Aging

Authors

  • Yi Jiang Sichuan Preschool Educators College, Mianyang, China Author
  • Qingfeng Wu Sichuan Preschool Educators College, Mianyang, China Author
  • Li Zhao Sichuan Preschool Educators College, Mianyang, China Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.70088/a59x1t47

Keywords:

aesthetic healing, elderly education, active aging, aesthetic experience, spiritual wellness

Abstract

As global population aging deepens continuously, a growing number of older adults experience inner spiritual emptiness, psychological imbalance, and weakened social interaction, which have become key obstacles restricting the effective implementation of active aging strategies. Compared with pharmacological therapies and professional psychological interventions that are limited by high access thresholds and inherent operational constraints, aesthetic education for senior citizens adopts immersive aesthetic experience and inclusive artistic practice as core carriers. It constructs a non-medical, daily, and sustainable intervention system for spiritual nourishment and psychological rehabilitation, which closely aligns with the core principles of health, participation, and security underpinning active aging. Based on an interdisciplinary research framework encompassing aesthetics, gerontological sociology, and health psychology, this study redefines the connotation of aesthetic healing for the elderly and distinguishes its essential differences from professional clinical art therapy. It further systematically elaborates four core healing dimensions, including emotional rehabilitation, cognitive maintenance, social bond reconstruction, and life value reshaping. By analyzing multiple practical scenarios involving visual arts, performing arts, digital aesthetic education, and community-rooted aesthetic services, this paper empirically verifies the positive effects of aesthetic education on relieving seniors' negative emotions, slowing cognitive deterioration, and alleviating social isolation. Targeting prominent industry bottlenecks including inadequate age-friendly curriculum design, insufficient professional teaching talent, and unbalanced urban-rural resource distribution, this research proposes a comprehensive institutional development framework from four perspectives: curriculum optimization, teacher team construction, multi-party collaborative guarantee, and inclusive balanced development. This study aims to transform scattered exploratory practices of senior aesthetic education into standardized, popularized, and high-quality public services, empower the spiritual health of aging populations via aesthetic education, and provide practical support for the national strategic deployment of actively addressing population aging.

References

Y. Wang, “Intangible cultural heritage art education for older adults: A scoping review of empowerment frameworks, practice pathways and cross-cultural insights,” Educational Gerontology, pp. 1–21, 2026.

N. E. Netshivhambe, “Promoting elderly wellbeing through indigenous music and choral performance,” Explore, vol. 21, no. 3, p. 103145, 2025.

Y. H. Shih, “Methods for successful aging: An aesthetics-oriented perspective derived from Richard Shusterman’s somaesthetics,” Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health, vol. 19, no. 18, p. 11404, 2022.

C. F. Almqvist and N. Andersson, “To offer dance as aesthetic experience and communication among elderly people: An art-based study,” Int. J. Educ. Arts, vol. 20, no. 12, 2019.

L. T. Lin, “Digital belonging in later life: participatory art facilitators' insights on reimagining socially engaged art for online elder health and well-being,” 2025.

C. F. Reynolds III, D. V. Jeste, P. S. Sachdev, and D. G. Blazer, “Mental health care for older adults: recent advances and new directions in clinical practice and research,” World Psychiatry, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 336–363, 2022.

N. Onishi and T. Nagamatsu, “The Role of Aesthetics in Elderly Care,” in Gerontology as an Interdisciplinary Science, Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore, 2024, pp. 215–223.

H. Chatterjee, S. Vreeland, and G. Noble, “Museopathy: Exploring the healing potential of handling museum objects,” Museum Soc., vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 164–177, 2009.

H. C. Tsai and R. L. Liu, “Action study of community-based aesthetic education course design and practice for senior citizens,” Syst. Pract. Action Res., vol. 33, no. 2, pp. 137–147, 2020.

B. M. Wikström, “Older adults and the arts: the importance of aesthetic forms of expression in later life,” J. Gerontol. Nurs., vol. 30, no. 9, pp. 30–36, 2004.

L. Jangi Jahantigh, Z. Latifi, and M. Soltani Zadeh, “The effectiveness of self-healing education on the quality of life in the elderly,” Aging Psychol., vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 359–345, 2021.

B. Marques, “Healing spaces: Improving health and wellbeing for the elderly through therapeutic landscape design,” 2020.

Downloads

Published

03 August 2026

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 3 (2026)

Section

Article

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Yi Jiang, Qingfeng Wu, Li Zhao (Author)

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Jiang, Y., Wu, Q. and Zhao, L. (2026) “The Healing Function and Institutional Construction of Aesthetic Education for the Elderly from the Perspective of Active Aging”, Medicine Insights, 3(3), pp. 59–67. doi:10.70088/a59x1t47.