Research On The Promotion Path Of Nostalgia On The Sense Of Meaning In Life In The Elderly

According to the results of China’s seventh national census,senior citizens aged 60 or above account for 18.7 percent of the country’s total population.By 2050,the number of senior citizens in China will reach 434 million,as China steps into a "deep aging society".Under the background of a serious aging society,however,few studies have explored the sense of the meaning of life in this group.By studying the psychological mechanism that affects the sense of the meaning of life in the elderly and extending services for the elderly from the social dimension,we can not only help the elderly better accept and adapt to aging,but also help them find the value and significance of life,making the elderly have a sense of security,belonging,and worthiness.Based on the literature review,this paper discussed the factors that affect the sense of the meaning of life.It explored the internal mechanism of the impact of nostalgia on the sense of the meaning of life by means of questionnaire survey.This study took the attitude toward aging as the mediator to understand its important role between nostalgia and the sense of the meaning of life.Moreover,the study explored the moderating role of general sense of belonging between the attitude toward aging and the sense of meaning of life.Then,the intervention research method was used to carry out individual nostalgia therapy for the elderly,verifying the hypothesis that nostalgia can effectively enhance the sense of meaning of life.The research used the Nostalgia Scale,Attitudes to Aging Questionnaire(AAQ),General Belongingness Scale(GBS),and Meaning in Life Questionnaire(MLQ)to investigate 478 elderly people,organized and analyzed the data.The conclusions are listed as follows:(1)Nostalgia,attitudes toward aging,the general sense of belonging,and the sense of the meaning of life have significant differences in gender,age,the way of old-age care,whether they are public servants,education level,and the number of children.(2)The four variables of nostalgia,attitudes toward aging,the sense of belonging,and the meaning of life in the elderly were positively correlated in pairs significantly.(3)Attitudes toward aging played a partial mediating role between nostalgia and the meaning of life.Nostalgia has a positive predictive effect on the meaning of life,and attitudes toward aging also has a positive predictive effect on the meaning of life.(4)The general sense of belonging moderated the second half path of the mediation model,in which the influence of nostalgia on the sense of meaning is mediated by the attitude toward aging.Specifically,the higher level of the sense of belonging in elderly people,the stronger positive predictive effect of aging attitude on the sense of the meaning of life.(5)Through the individual nostalgia therapy for eight weeks,the pretest and posttest of the sense of meaning of life in the elderly indicated that nostalgia therapy could effectively improve the sense of the meaning of life in the elderly.