The Causal Relationship between the Meaning of Life and Self-Compassion with the Fear of Aging among the Elderly in Ilam: The Mediating Role of Spiritual Health

Abstract

Introduction: Fear of aging is one of the important factors for aging experts in the contemporary era of psychology. A negative attitude toward aging activates the anxiety of aging in the elderly, thereby leading to an experience of morbid anxiety in old age, which is exacerbating with age. This study aimed to investigate the causal relationship between the meaning of life and self-compassion with the fear of aging considering the mediating role of spiritual health among the elderly in Ilam, Iran. Material & Methods: This correlational-descriptive study was conducted on 300 elderly who were selected purposefully from the statistical population based on the inclusion criteria. The required data were collected using the Meaning of Life Questionnaire by Steger et al. (2006), Self-Compassion Scale (Neff, 2003), Anxiety about Aging Scale by Lasher (1993), and Polotzin and Ellison's (1982) Spiritual Health Questionnaire. The obtained data were then analyzed using structural equation modeling. (Ethic Code: IR.IAU.TABRIZ.REC.1401.066) Findings: The path coefficient values in the research model indicated that self-compassion and meaning of life explained 43% and 39% of the changes related to the fear of aging directly and respectively, which is statistically significant at the 95%. Discussion & Conclusion: The results showed that self-compassion and the meaning of life had an effect on the fear of aging through the mediating role of spiritual health.

Keywords

• fear of old age
• meaning of life
• self-compassion
• spiritual health