Role of Aappreciation on Happiness by Mediating Self-Acceptance and Forgiveness in the Elderly

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to study the role of appreciation on happiness by mediating self-acceptance and forgiveness in the elderly. The research method was descriptive-correlative. The participants included 950 elderlies (712 women and 238 men) were selected by cluster sampling. Research tools included Unconditional Acceptance Questionnaire by James Lin et al., Interpersonal Forgiveness by Ehteshamzadeh et al., Gratitude Questionnaire by McCullough et al., and Happiness Questionnaire by Fordyce. Data analysis was done by Pearson correlation test and path analysis. Evaluating the direct effects of research variables indicated that gratitude affected happiness, self-acceptance, and forgiveness, respectively. In addition, self-acceptance and forgiveness affected happiness. Furthermore, gratitude, self-acceptance, and forgiveness explained 28% of changes in the variance of happiness. In terms of indirect role, gratitude affected happiness with the mediations of self-acceptance. Further, gratitude had an indirect effect on happiness through forgiveness. In generally, the assumed research model was well-suited. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to the role of the variables of appreciation, self-acceptance and forgiveness in designing educational packages or implementing psychotherapy interventions to increase the happiness in the elderly.

Keywords

• forgiveness
• self-acceptance
• elderly
• appreciation
• happiness