The Mediation Role of Social Support and Happiness on The Relationship between Gratitude and Death Anxiety in The Elderly

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Master of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences and Education, razi university, Kermanshah, Iran

2 Associate Professor Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences and Education, razi university, Kermanshah, Iran

Abstract

The present study was conducted to determine the structural relationship between gratitude and death anxiety with the role of mediation of social support and happiness among elderly residents of the Kahrizak sanatorium in Tehran province. 352 elderly person residents of Kahrizak sanatorium were selected as stratified random sampling. To collect data Scales of death anxiety Templer, gratitude McCullough et al., perceived social support Zimm et al. and Oxford Happiness Argyle &Lu, was used. After the Confirmatory Factor Analysis, the evaluation of the proposed model was analyzed by structural equation modeling. The findings of the study showed that the developed model had suitable fitness and fitness. also, gratitude and perceived social support and happiness significantly predicted death anxiety. These variables were negative and significant predictors for death anxiety. Also, the method of mediation analysis was done using the Bootstrap method. The results of the analysis revealed that gratitude could reduce the level of death anxiety by increasing perceived social support and happiness. According to the findings of this research, it could be concluded that death anxiety of the elderly is affected by perceived social support and their level of happiness. Therefore, attention to the role of perceived social support and the amount of happiness in explaining the relationship of gratitude and death anxiety in the elderly was important. So be created by building capacity to increase these variables was reducing death anxiety in the elderly.

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