Enhancement of Meaning in Life and Life-Satisfaction Among the Elderly in an Elderly Care Center Through Existentially Based Group Counseling
Keywords:
Meaning in Life, Life-Satisfaction, Elderly, Existentially-Based Group CounselingAbstract
This research is a quasi-experiment through pre-test and post-test. The purpose of this research was to enhance the meaning in life and life-satisfaction among the elderly in an elderly care center through existentially based group counseling. The sample of the existentially based group counseling consisted of 20 voluntary elderlies in an elderly care center aged 60-69 years old who had scores of meaning in life and life-satisfaction at the desired level. They were categorized as an experimental group and a controlled group using a sample sampling method, 10 participants in each group. The experimental group participated in the existentially based group counseling for eight sessions, two sessions for a week, and each session lasted for 60 to 75 minutes. The controlled group did not participate in the counseling, but the researcher led the group. The instruments of this research consisted of three parts 1) Meaning of life questionnaire (MLQ), 2) Life-Satisfaction Index A (LSIA), and 3) Existentially based group counseling. After the questionnaires were completed, the Shapiro-Wilk test was used to verify the normal distribution of data. After that, the data was analyzed by t-test.
The results of the research revealed that an existentially based group counseling can enhance the meaning in life and life-satisfaction among the elderly in an elderly care center as follows:
- The meaning in life among elderly who participated in the existentially based group counseling significantly increased at .05 level of significance.
- The life-satisfaction among elderly who participated in the existentially based group counseling significantly increased at .05 level of significance.
- The elderly in the experimental group that participated in the existentially based group had significantly higher score in the meaning in life than the elderly in the controlled group who did not participated in the existentially based group after the experiment at .05 level of significance.
- The elderly in the experimental group that participated in the existentially based group had significantly higher score in the life-satisfaction than the elderly in the controlled group who did not participated in the existentially based group after the experiment at .05 level of significance.
The results can be extended to accommodate the elderly which are growing in number. The study will be part of enhancing good quality of life and happiness of the elderly.
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