The presence and search for meaning in life in late adulthood. The meaning of cosmic gerotranscendence

Abstract

Objectives The study was conducted in two stages. The aim of the first stage was to build a typology of older people, taking into account two dimensions of the Meaning in life variable: Presence of meaning in life (MLQ_P) and Search for meaning in life (MLQ_S). The aim of the second stage was to test the mediating role of Cosmic Gerotranscendence in the relationship between MLQ_P and MLQ_S.Method The cross-sectional study involved people aged 65+ living in Central Europe. Data were collected using questionnaires: MLQ, SWLS, GST-2. In the first stage, the cluster analysis method and one-way ANOVA was used. In the second stage, mediation analysis was used.Results The grouping of research subjects revealed three types of elderly people. The search for meaning takes place in a group that already feels its presence in their lives. The study confirmed the hypothesis about the mediating role of Cosmic Gerotranscendence in the relationship between MLQ_P and MLQ_S in older people.Conclusion The study suggests a research direction for researchers studying the topic of lifespan human development/learning. An approach that shifts attention toward spirituality may provide new insights into the study of successful aging and existential learning in older adults.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 0 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.