The Construction and Validation of the Elderly Reminiscence Questionnaire

Reminiscence appears to be a crucial variable in the elderly, according elderly related literature. However, there is seen to be a lack of a suitable tool to assess the rate and kind of reminiscence in the aged people in Iran. Therefore, the current study was to construct and validate an elderly reminiscence questionnaire based on Watt and Wong (1991) model. This was a “research and development” study in terms of its purpose and a descriptive one in terms of its kind. The statistical population contained the whole aged individuals up to 60 years old residing in Hamedan, Kermanshah, Arak, Rasht, Semnan, Urmia, Abadan, Tehran and Kerman, among whom selected using convenience sampling were 436 (226 male & 210 female) who filled out a 48-item elderly reminiscence questionnaire. Having been analysed using SPSS-23, results indicated that the internal consistency (Cronbach's Alpha-coefficient) was 0.904 for whole items and were 0.904, 0.826, 0.795, 0.812, and 0.774 for narrative-transmissive, obsessive, integrative, death preparation, and escapist subscales respectively. The factor structure of the questionnaire was analysed using Exploratory Factor Analysis with Varimax Rotation. Results indicated that 18 items in questionnaire don’t exhibit acceptable loading on any component and there were found 30 items which exhibited the highest loadings on 5 emerged components include narrative-transmissive (8 items), obsessive (6 items), integrative (7 items), death preparation (5 items), and escapist reminiscence (4 items). Besides, the instrumental and intimacy maintenance subscales were deleted from the questionnaire. Hence, it may open up a new chapter in the elderly related studies in Iran, with the utilization of 30-item elderly reminiscence questionnaire in future studies and the consideration of the relationship between the rate and kind of reminiscence with other significant elderly related variables.