A Comparison between the Feeling of Loneliness and Feeling of Meaningfulness of the Life of the Old at the Different Level of Religious Attitudes

The aim of the present research is to investigate the role of religious attitude in the feeling of loneliness and feeling of meaningfulness of the life of the old. 221 of the old completed a questionnaire concerning religious attitude designed by Khodayarifard et al, Russell's questionnaire on loneliness and Salehi's questionnaire about meaningfulness. The results obtained by MANOVA and Scheffes's follow up method show that the stronger the religious attitude of the old is the stronger their feeling of meaningfulness in life (p<0.051) will be. Furthermore, the old who have a rigid religious attitude feel less lonely than those whose religious attitude is negative or not favourable. Religious attitude is considered a preventive factor which affairs help to decrease the problems of the old. Accordingly, those who are in charge of strengthen the religious beliefs of the old and prepare good grounds for them to participate in religious activities by designing some kinds of programs which contribute to improving their psychological condition.