The Prediction of Psychological Well-being Based on Death Anxiety and Self-compassion in the Elderly

Elderly is a sensitive period of human life that pose high risk and problems to aged people.However, elderly people who have a high level of psychological well-being will be able to deal with these problems and disorientation. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate the relationship between Self-Compassion and Death anxiety with psychological well-being in the elderly. The present study is a descriptive correlational research. The population was all old men in the part-time center for keeping elderly in Kermanshah. A nonrandom and volunteer sample of 300 elderly people from the Mehregan part-time elderly care center in Kermanshah (Iran) participated in the study. To collect data, Ryff’s Psychological Well-being Questionnaire (1989), Short Self-Compassion Forms of Raes et al. (2011), and Templer’s Death Anxiety (1970) were used.Collected data were analyzed using the Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression analyses by the stepwise method. The results showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between self-compassion and Psychological well-being (r = 0.61) while there is a negative significant relationship between Psychological well-being and Death anxiety (r = -0.20). The results of multiple regression analysis using stepwise method showed that in the order of their importance,Over-identified, Self-kindness, Isolation, Mindfulness, Death anxiety, and Self-judgment, all together are capable of predicting 57% of changes in psychological well-being. According to the results of this study, enhancing Self-Compassion and elaboration and implementation of strategies to reduce the Anxiety of Death can enhance the Psychological well-being of the elderly,especially in the center that keep the elderly.