The Relationship of Meaning in Life, Self-compassion, and Perceived Social Support With Fear of Aging: The Mediating Role of Spiritual Well-being

This study aims to assess the relationship of the meaning of life, self-compassion and perceived social support with the fear of aging in the elderly in Iran, mediated by spiritual well-being. 

This is a descriptive-correlational study with a cross-sectional design. The study population consists of the elderly aged 65-80 years in Ila, Iran. Using a purposive sampling method، 300 elderly (men and woman) were selected. The assessment tools included Steger et al. ’s Meaning of Life Questionnaires, Neff’s Self-Compassion Scale, Phillips et al. ’s Social Support Appraisals Scale, Lasher and Faulkender’s Anxiety about Aging Scale, and Paloutzian & Ellison’s Spiritual Well Being Scale. Data were analyzed using Pearson’s correlation test, descriptive statistics, and the maximum likelihood method (ML) in SPSS software, version 26, and structural equation modeling in AMOS version 24.

Participants were 140(46.77%) males and 83(28.33%) females. In terms of age range, 157 (53.33%) were in the age group of 65-69 years, 85 (28.33%) in the age group of 70-75 years, and 58 (19.33%) in the age group of 76-80 years. The values of path coefficients indicated that the meaning of life (39%)، self-compassion (43%), and perceived social support (27%) directly explained the changes in the fear of aging. The meaning of life and self-compassion variables were indirectly related to the fear of aging through spiritual well-being. Spiritual well-being did not statistically mediate the relationship between perceived social support and fear of aging (P>0.05). 

Meaning in life, self-compassion, perceived social support, and spiritual well-being can be used in educational interventions for the treatment of fear of aging in the elderly.