The Relationship Between Loneliness, Spiritual Intelligence and General Health with Death Anxiety in the Elderly: The Mediating Role of Mindfulness

Death anxiety can increase the negative attitude towards aging and even leads to anxiety and fear of aging. Therefore, it seems very important to know the psychological factors which affect death anxiety in the elderly. In this regard, the aim of this study was to examine the relationship between loneliness, spiritual intelligence and general health with death anxiety through the mediating role of mindfulness in the elderly. The research method was correlational, of path analysis type. The statistical population of the present study included all community-dwelling elderly living in three districts of 3, 8 and 20 of Tehran, Iran in 2021, among whom 250 were selected as the sample of the study using convenience sampling method. The research instruments included Templer’s death anxiety, Russell’s loneliness, King's spiritual intelligence, Goldberg & Hillier’s general health and Baer’s mindfulness questionnaires. The results indicated that the hypothesized model has a good fit with the research data. The results of the path analysis to examine the role of the mediator variable also revealed that mindfulness mediates the relationship between loneliness, spiritual intelligence and general health with death anxiety in the elderly. Accordingly, it can be concluded that the increased level of mindfulness results in reduction of death anxiety in the elderly and it is necessary to provide solutions to increase it in the society.