The mediating effect of expectations regarding aging between psychological resilience and quality of life in rural elderly.

Abstract

Background: At present, China's elderly population is facing several difficulties. The implementation of active aging is an important initiative in the face of the rapidly developing situation of population aging, among which improving elderly expectations regarding the aging level is the key link to achieving active aging. Improving the quality of life of the majority of elderly individuals is the main goal of active aging. Moreover, increasing the level of expectations regarding the aging of the elderly depends to a large extent on psychological resilience. However, most of the current research related to expectations regarding aging focuses on urban elderly individuals and pays less attention to the expectations regarding the aging level of rural elderly individuals. It is not yet known how quality of life, psychological resilience, and expectations regarding aging are related among rural elderly individuals. This study focused on the state of expectations regarding aging, psychological resilience, and quality of life among senior citizens living in rural areas, as well as the relationships among these three factors. The goal is to provide a theoretical basis for further targeted interventions and promote active aging in China.

Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive design was conducted via convenience sampling of 320 elderly individuals living in four rural areas of Panzhihua, China, from January to May 2024. Questionnaires were used to collect data on the participants' demographic information, the aging expectancy scale (ERA-21), the 10-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC-10), and a 12-item short-form health survey (SF-12). The data were analysed via SPSS version 26.0 software for descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA, and Pearson's correlation coefficient. In addition, AMOS version 24.0 software was employed for path analysis.

Results: The results revealed that Chinese rural elderly individuals have low expectations regarding aging, moderate levels of psychological resilience, and moderate levels of quality of life. There were positive relationships between expectations regarding aging and quality of life (r = 0.631, p < 0.01), positive relationships between expectations regarding aging and psychological resilience (r = 0.261, p < 0.01), and psychological resilience in terms of quality of life (r = 0.334, p < 0.01). Expectations regarding aging play a partial mediating role between psychological resilience and quality of life (β = 0.273, 95% CI, 0.185 ~ 0.381), with an indirect effect accounting for 45.81% of the total effect.

Conclusions: Expectations regarding aging play a partial mediating role in the relationship between psychological resilience and quality of life. These findings suggest that grassroots health workers should take an active role in providing health education and psychological counselling, as well as actively working to improve the psychological resilience and health of elderly individuals. They should also be encouraged to actively approach aging and to raise expectations regarding aging. Finally, they should help elderly people maintain a healthy lifestyle and improve their quality of life.