The Effectiveness of Life Review on the Sense of Coherence and Retirement Syndrome in Older Adults

Retirement has become an ever-increasing important topic in psychological research, which is accompanied by problems. Therefore, it is necessary to intervene in order to increase the sense of cohesion and reduce the retirement syndrome. Therefore, this study was conducted with the aim of examining the effectiveness of life review on the sense of coherence and retirement syndrome in older adults. This was a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest design with a control group. The statistical population of the research included all the retired male teachers (60 years old and older) of Harsin, Iran in 2022. The sample of the research included 30 individuals selected using convenience sampling method and according to the study inclusion and exclusion criteria. The experimental group received Haight and Webster's life review protocol in six 90-minute sessions. The measures were Antonovsky’s sense of coherence scale and Bozorgmehri et al.’s retirement syndrome questionnaire. The data were analyzed through univariate covariance analysis (ANCOVA) in SPSS-26 software. The findings indicated that the protocol of life review has significant effectiveness in increasing the sense of coherence and reducing the retirement syndrome in older adults. As such, participants in experimental group showed a significant improvement in the sense of coherence and retirement syndrome compared to the control group. According to the empirical evidence of the positive effectiveness of the life review on the sense of coherence and retirement syndrome, it is recommended that all retirement centers and nursing homes and even families of older adults take advantages of this cost-effective and practical method.