An Analysis of Differences in Successful Aging, Loneliness, and Depression According to Marital Status Among Older Golf Participants

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Thank you for the invitation. I appreciate the hard work put into this relevant context, using an established framework for successful aging and good statistical analysis of relevant and reliable scales.

A few notes I would like to share - aside from limitations acknowledged by the authors:

1. The sample chosen is barely representative of Korean older adults. It should be mentioned in this manuscript that only 12% or fewer older adults participate in golf, an expensive sport. This fact may debunk the speculation that divorced individuals are economically vulnerable. That, in my opinion, is a major confounding factor.
2. The study only analyzes older adults who participate in golf. Without a control group, it's impossible to conclude that golf has a buffering effect.
3. The lack of baseline data makes it hard to distinguish if their current state is a result of their marital change or a long-standing trait.
4. The authors did not comment on the gender differences, if any. Men and women cope very differently with bereavement and divorce.
5. The time since the loss of a partner was not mentioned. For example, loneliness scores vary significantly when an individual becomes widowed 6 months ago vs 6 years ago.
6. Some sentences are excessively long and need to be broken into smaller ones for ease of reading.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer 1,

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to strengthen our manuscript with your valuable comments and queries. We have worked hard to incorporate your feedback and hope that these revisions persuade you to accept our submission.

 

Comment 1) The sample chosen is barely representative of Korean older adults. It should be mentioned in this manuscript that only 12% or fewer older adults participate in golf, an expensive sport. This fact may debunk the speculation that divorced individuals are economically vulnerable. That, in my opinion, is a major confounding factor.

• In response to the reviewer’s comment, we clarified the scope of the study by explicitly stating that the findings pertain to older adults who regularly participate in golf, rather than the general older adult population. In addition, statements suggesting that divorced individuals may be economically vulnerable were removed from the manuscript.

Comment 2) The study only analyzes older adults who participate in golf. Without a control group, it's impossible to conclude that golf has a buffering effect.

• In response to the reviewer’s comment, we revised the manuscript to avoid causal interpretations regarding the buffering effect of golf and limited our conclusions to associations observed among older adults who participate in golf.

Comment 3) The lack of baseline data makes it hard to distinguish if their current state is a result of their marital change or a long-standing trait.

 

• The lack of baseline data was clearly identified as a limitation of this study.

Comment 4) The authors did not comment on the gender differences, if any. Men and women cope very differently with bereavement and divorce.

• The lack of analysis of gender differences was clearly identified as a limitation of this study.

Comment 5) The time since the loss of a partner was not mentioned. For example, loneliness scores vary significantly when an individual becomes widowed 6 months ago vs 6 years ago.

• The lack of consideration of the time since spousal loss was clearly identified as a limitation of this study.

Comment 6) Some sentences are excessively long and need to be broken into smaller ones for ease of reading.

• As suggested by the reviewers, we have thoroughly revised long and complex sentences throughout the manuscript to enhance clarity and ensure ease of reading. Specifically, several excessively long sentences in the Methods and Discussion sections have been broken down into smaller, more concise ones.

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

thank you very much. it seems excellent manuscript (An Analysis of Differences in Successful Aging, Loneliness, and Depres). I hope my recommendations can help:

1-)

It goes beyond a simple "married vs. unmarried" comparison, meaningfully distinguishing between divorced and bereaved groups—a nuance often missed.

2-)compared to which group

Most dimensions of successful aging were more 22
favorable in the married group.

3-)if possible mention 2025 reference.

 In Korea, adults aged 65 and 37
over currently constitute 20% of the population in 2025, with projections indicating that 38
this proportion will surpass 30% by 2040, attaining super-aged society status

4-)please remove references from 1992.

5-)please add updated reference:

Although aging is traditionally viewed nega- 50
tively as a process of sensory and functional decline (Doty, 1984),

6-)please add recent reference:

Depression encompasses a broader affective state than loneliness. It is characterized 90
by persistent loss of interest, feelings of worthlessness, sadness, and an overall diminished 91
emotional tone (Battle, 197

7-)if possible define regularly

This study targeted adults aged 65 years and older who regularly participated in golf.

8-)give more information about statistical analysis.

9-)you can add following reference to support the claim :

 It is characterized by persistent loss of interest, feelings of worthlessness, sadness, and an overall diminished 91 emotional tone (Battle, 1978)

doi:10.30773/pi.2024.0273

doi: 10.5195/pom.2025.211

10-）authors can also discuss theories besides of hedonic adaptation theory

Author Response

Dear Reviewer 2,

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to strengthen our manuscript with your valuable comments and queries. We have worked hard to incorporate your feedback and hope that these revisions persuade you to accept our submission.

 

2-)compared to which group

Most dimensions of successful aging were more 22
favorable in the married group.

• We revised the sentence to specify which group the married group was compared with.

 

3-)if possible mention 2025 reference.

 In Korea, adults aged 65 and 37
over currently constitute 20% of the population in 2025, with projections indicating that 38
this proportion will surpass 30% by 2040, attaining super-aged society status

• After rechecking the reference, we revised the reference year to accurately reflect the cited population data.

 

4-)please remove references from 1992.

• we removed references published in 1992 and replaced them with more recent and

 

5-)please add updated reference:

Although aging is traditionally viewed nega- 50
tively as a process of sensory and functional decline (Doty, 1984),

• We removed the reference from 1984 and replaced it with more recent and relevant literature.

 

6-)please add recent reference:

Depression encompasses a broader affective state than loneliness. It is characterized 90 by persistent loss of interest, feelings of worthlessness, sadness, and an overall diminished 91 emotional tone (Battle, 197

• We removed the reference from 1978 and replaced it with more recent and relevant literature.

 

7-)if possible define regularly

This study targeted adults aged 65 years and older who regularly participated in golf.

• Regarding the definition of 'regularly,' we have replaced this term with 'active golf participants' to more accurately describe the study population. This change reflects that all participants were engaged in golf activities at the time of the survey, ensuring the relevance of the sample to the study's objectives without relying on an arbitrary frequency threshold.

 

8-)give more information about statistical analysis.

• Detailed information regarding the statistical analysis has been added to the revised manuscript. Specifically, we have included the criteria for factor extraction in the Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and provided the results of Box’s M test to verify the assumptions for the Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA).

 

9-)you can add following reference to support the claim :

 It is characterized by persistent loss of interest, feelings of worthlessness, sadness, and an overall diminished 91 emotional tone (Battle, 1978)

• The outdated reference (Battle, 1978) has been replaced with Cai et al. (2023) to provide more contemporary support for the characteristics of depression.

 

10-）authors can also discuss theories besides of hedonic adaptation theory

• The theoretical framework was strengthened by incorporating Activity Theory. The added theory emphasizes that through the activity of golf, older adults proactively reshape their psychological states and social roles.