The Effectiveness of Group Reminiscence on Psychological Hardiness and Life Expectancy of The Elderly

The growing trend of aging phenomenon poses the need to pay attention to the issues of the elderly as a social necessity. The decrease of the life expectancy and psychological hardiness can cause difficulties in the elderly. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of group reminiscence on psychological hardiness and life expectancy of the elderly in Tehran, Iran. This was a quasi-experimental study with pretest-posttest design with a control group. The statistical papulation included all the elderly residing in nursing homes in Tehran among which Kahrizak nursing home was selected using convenience sampling method. Thirty elderly were selected according to the inclusion criteria of the study and assigned randomly into experimental (n=15) and control (n=15) groups. The experimental group received eight 2-hour weekly sessions of reminiscence intervention and the control group remained on the waiting list. Cliff’s Mental Strength and Miller's life expectancy Questionnaires were applied to collect data. The results of Univariate Covariance Analysis (ANCOVA) indicated that the reminiscence has a significant effect on psychological Hardiness and its components including challenge, life control, self-confidence, interpersonal trust (P<0.05) and has no significant effect on commitment and emotional control components (P<0.05). Moreover, the significant effect of the intervention on life expectancy was confirmed (P<0.05). The findings of this study illustrate the effectiveness of group reminiscence intervention in the elderly. Therefore, it is recommended that psychologists and therapists take advantages of this method in order to improve the psychological problems of the elderly.