Elderly and Meaning in Life: Field Study of Sources and Dimensions of Meaning in Old Women and Men

The present study has investigated the sources and domains that give meaning to old people’s life, from their point of view, presence of and search for meaning and the differences between women and men in these components. Old people aged over 60 in Tehran formed the statistical population of this research. From this population 287 old individuals, aged over 60 years (M: 67.43, Std: 4.75, 54% females), were selected using available sampling method and they completed two instruments of the Schedule for Meaning in Life Evaluation and Meaning in Life Questionnaire. Chi square and analysis of variance tests were applied to analyze the data. The results showed that “family” (92.3%) and “partnership” (54.7%) are the areas that have been reported most frequently as sources of meaning by old people. Moreover, two new categories of sources of meaning in life have been identified in this study, using content analysis “morality” and “the need for social approval”. Old female and male participants differed in the frequency of mentioning some of the sources of meaning and the dimension of search for meaning. These findings have been discussed in the context of developmental and meaning in life theories.