Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Compassion Therapy on Despair and Rumination in Older Adults

Hopelessness and negative rumination are among issues the older adults cope with it. Examining effective therapy strategies to decrease them are of great importance. The current study was conducted with regard to understanding the importance of this issue. It aims at examining the effectiveness of mindfulness-based compassion therapy on hopelessness and rumination among the female elderly.

It was a semi-experimental study with pre-test and post-test and a control group. Statistical population was 70 elderly females of over 60 and above in nursing home in Bojnurd City, North Khorasan Province, Iran, in 2020. Among these people, 30 individuals willing to participate in the study were introduced by the center’s psychologist and randomly assigned into two experimental (15) and control (15) groups. Instrument for collecting data was Beck Hopelessness Scale and Hooksma rumination questionnaire. Data obtained from the questionnaires were analyzed by the covariance analysis test.

Results suggested that mindfulness-based compassion therapy led to a significant decrease on mean scores of hopelessness regarding the experimental group in comparison with the control group (p < 0.01). However, it did not have a significant effect on rumination.

Mindfulness-based compassion therapy may be used for decrease of hopelessness regarding aging, but it is not effective for rumination.