Self-Compassion, Attitude Towards Religion and Death Anxiety: Predictors of Psychological Well-Being in the Elderly

Subject Areas : Clinical psychology

Payam Varaee ¹ , Khodamorad Momeni ² , Asie Moradi ³

1 - MA in Psychology of Razi University
2 - PhD Razi University
3 - PhD Razi University

Received: 2018-10-27 Accepted : 2018-10-27 Published : 2018-06-22

Keywords: Psychological well-being, self-Compassion, death anxiety, Keywords: elderly, Religion,

Abstract :

he aim of this study was to examine the relationships among psychological well-being, religiosity, self-compassion, and death anxiety in the elderly. A nonrandom and volunteer sample of 300 elderly people from Mehregan part-time elderly care center in Kermanshah, Iran participated in the study. The participants completed the Psychological Well-being (Ryff, 1989), the Self-Compassion Scale (Raes, Pommier, Neff & Gucht, 2011), the Muslim Attitudes toward Religion Scale (Wilde & Joseph, 1997) and the Death Anxiety Scale (Templer, 1970). Pearson correlation coefficient and stepwise regression were used to analyze the data.The results indicated that psychological well-being positively related to self-compassion and religiousness. The psychological well-being negatively related to death anxiety. The results of stepwise regression analysis indicated that over-identification, personal help, mindfulness, isolation, death anxiety, self-judging and Islamic rituals accounted for 59% of variances of psychological well-being. The findings suggested that psychological well-being in elderly people may be increased by strengthening self-compassion and religiosity and weakening death anxiety.

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