Abstract
The current research examined four factors that 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 of the elderly. Third, self-identity increases individuals’ perceived value of themselves. Last, policy support perception is related to the available resource that the elderly can utilize to achieve their goals.
Through a questionnaire survey of 272 elderly samples (M = 69.25, SD = 7.90), the results showed that 1) the sense of perceived control, self-identity, and policy support perception were all positively correlated to meaning of life. As the elderly had stronger sense of perceived control, this would make them believe they are capable of pursuit of their goals. With higher level of self-identity, the elderly are more lilely to accept themselves, such like values, abilities, and so on. With high policy support perception, they realized there was adequate, sufficient, and available social resource. All these factors contribute to the meaning of life of the elderly. 2) self-identity had significant effect on meaning of life. Besides, it also played as 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 indicates that higher policy support perception could enhance the positive effect of the sense of perceived control on life meaning. The results indicate that in the high policy support perception condition, for those with the sense of higher sense of perceived control, they realized that the government provided them adequate support to pursue an ideal life. However, for those with lower sense of perceived control, they could not realize it. In contrast, in the low policy support perception condition, neither did people with high or low level of the sense of perceived control feel additional support from the government. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.
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The Meaning of Life and The Perceived Control of Senior Citizens: The effect of Self-Identity and Policy Support[J]. Journal of Psychological Science. 2020, 43(5): 1087-1094
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