144. The impact of community interaction in the inheritance of Xinjiang earthenware skills on the mental health of the elderly and its buffering effect of emotional support

Abstract Background Existing research indicates that the loss of traditional social roles and the reduction of social interaction are the main risk factors for mental health problems such as loneliness, anxiety and depression among the elderly. However, existing research lacks an analysis of the role of community interaction embedded in the process of intangible cultural heritage inheritance in alleviating these psychological problems. Therefore, this study takes the elderly who participate in the inheritance activities of Xinjiang earthenware skills as the research subjects, aiming to explore the impact of community interaction in the inheritance of Xinjiang earthenware skills on the mental health of the elderly through quantitative and qualitative analysis. Methods The research adopted a mixed research method for experiments. In the quantitative research stage, the study took 300 elderly people from 12 earthenware inheritance communities in Kashgar, Hotan and Turpan, Xinjiang as the experimental group, and 300 elderly people who had not participated in any intangible cultural heritage inheritance activities as the control group. There were no significant differences between the two groups of participants in terms of age, gender, educational background and regional distribution. Research data were collected through standardized scales Including the Loneliness Scale (UCLA) and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 Scale GAD-7), Patient Health Questionnaire-9 Scale (PHQ-9), and Perceived Social Support Scale (PSSS). The level of community interaction mainly consists of interaction frequency, depth and diversity. In the qualitative research stage, 15 participants were selected from each of the two groups for semi-structured interviews to explore their subjective experiences of emotional support. Data analysis was uniformly conducted using independent sample t-test, Pearson correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis, and data processing was uniformly carried out using SPSS 26.0 software. Results The research results show that the community interaction frequency of the elderly in the experimental group was 4.2 times per week, the interaction depth was 85.3 minutes per time, and the interaction diversity was 7 people, all of which were significantly higher than those in the control group (p<.001). Meanwhile, the scores of loneliness, anxiety and depression in the experimental group were 28.3 points, 5.2 points and 4.8 points respectively, which were significantly lower than those in the control group (p<.001), and the score of perceived social support was as high as 65.7 points, which was significantly higher than that in the control group (p<.001). Community interaction was significantly negatively correlated with loneliness, anxiety and depression (p<.001), and significantly positively correlated with perceived social support (p<.001). However, multiple regression analysis shows that community interaction has a significant negative predictive effect on loneliness, anxiety and depression, with explanatory powers of 31.21%, 26.84% and 29.56% respectively. Discussion Research has demonstrated that community interaction in the inheritance of Xinjiang earthenware skills has a significant positive impact on the mental health of the elderly, effectively reducing their levels of loneliness, anxiety and depression, providing practical support for the formulation of mental health intervention programs for the elderly in ethnic minority areas. Funding No. ZKJS202406.