Fear of Aging in Older Adults: The Role of Meaning in Life, Self-Compassion and Perceived Social Support

The ever-increasing papulation of older people, the prolongation of life and the passing of a significant part of people’s lives in the third and fourth periods of life, have led to tremendous and profound changes in society and social subsystems. As it is essential to descript the fear of aging and the investigation of its effects on the whole personal and interpersonal life of older adults, the Identification and study of possible variables involved in this type of studies can be a way to control and reduce the negative effects of this ambiguous experience. This was a descriptive study, of correlational type. The statistical population of the research included all older men and women aged 65 to 80 years old living in Ilam, Iran in 2021, among whom 300 people (140 men and 160 women) were selected by convenience sampling and according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. The measures included Steger et al.’s meaning of life, Neff’s self-compassion, Wax et al.’s perceived social support, and Lasher and Falkander’s fear of old age questionnaires. The data were analyzed using Pearson’s correlation coefficient and univariate regression analysis in SPSS-26 software. The results of Pearson’s correlation coefficient figured out that there is a significant correlation between fear of aging with meaning of life (r=-.46), self-compassion (r=-.59) and perceived social support (r=-.47). The results of univariate regression analysis indicated that the meaning of life (β=-.459, P<.001), self-compassion (β=.001, P<.520) and perceived social support (P<.001, β=-.575) can negatively predict the fear of aging in older adults. Therefore, psychologists working in the field of aging are suggested to take advantages of promoting meaning in life, self-compassion and perceived social support to reduce the fear of aging in the elderly.