控制感与老年人生命意义感:自我认同和政策支持的作用

The Meaning of Life and The Perceived Control of Senior Citizens:The Effect of Self-Identity and Policy Support

通过对来自北京、香港和台北的300名老年人的问卷调查,探讨了控制感、自我认同和政策支持感等因素影响老年人生命意义感的机制。结果发现控制感和政策支持感对老年人生命意义感均有显著的积极效果;政策支持在控制感与生命意义感的关系中起调节作用——较高的政策支持增强了控制感对生命意义感的促进作用;自我认同在控制感与生命意义感的关系中起部分中介作用。这些结果对积极应对老龄化问题与增进老年人身心健康有重要的理论和现实意义。

Leading a meaningful life is what people pursue for a whole lifetime, especially for the elderly. Previous studies indicated that four factors could impact the elderly’s quality of life: first, the meaning of life directly affects the mental health and the quality of life of the elderly. Second, the sense of perceived control is an important predictor of the overall physical and mental experience. Third, self-identity increases individuals’ perceived value of themselves. Lastly, policy support perception is related to the available resource that the elderly can utilize to achieve their goals. To clarify the elder’s mental mechanism about these four factors, this study recruited 300 older people from Beijing, Hong-Kong, and Taipei(100 for each place) as subjects, and investigated how their perceived control, self-identity, policy support perception had an effect on the meaning of life by questionnaires.The result suggested that:(1) The sense of perceived control, self-identity, and policy support perception were all positively correlated to the meaning of life. As the elderly had a stronger sense of perceived control, this would make them believe they were capable of achieving their goals. With a higher level of self-identity, the elderly was more likely to accept themselves, such as values, abilities, and so on. With high policy support perception, they realized there was adequate, sufficient, and available social resource. All these factors contributed to the meaning of life of the elderly.(2) Selfidentity had a significant effect on the meaning of life. Besides, it also played a partial mediating role in the relationship between the sense of perceived control and the meaning of life.(3) Policy support perception moderated the relationship between the sense of perceived control and the meaning of life. This indicated that higher policy support perception could enhance the positive effect of the sense of perceived control on life meaning. The results indicated that in the high policy support perception condition, for those with a higher sense of perceived control, they realized that the government provided them with adequate support to pursue an ideal life. Otherwise, for those with a lower sense of perceived control, they could not realize it. In contrast, in the low policy support perception condition, neither people with high or low level of sense of perceived control felt additional support from the government. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed. As the older population continues to grow, healthy issues in later life need to be taken seriously. This study suggests that the older people’s quality of life can be improved through increasing perceived control, self-identity, and policy support perception. Possible ways to deal with this issue are listed below. For example, the government could publicize the pension policies more widely to make the elderly realize that there is sufficient support for them, or the family members could encourage them to recall honorable memories, which may boost one’s self-identity. To put it another way, it is recommended that the relevant departments and the public pay attention to the importance of the meaning of life, and help the elderly obtain a more splendid life by improving their psychological state and social support.