The Relationship Between Spiritual Health and Sense of Coherence in the Elderly: The Mediating Role of Psychological Hardiness

The growing trend of aging population and the importance of psychological cohesion of the elderly has made it more important to study the factors associated with it. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the relationship with psychological cohesion through the mediating role of psychological hardiness. The research method was descriptive, of  structural equations modeling type. The statistical population included all the elderly under the care of welfare nursing homes in Mashhad in the first three months of 2022, of whom 100 eligible individuals were selected using convenience sampling method. The measures included Paloutzian and Ellison’s spiritual health, Kiamrei et al.’s psychological hardiness and Antonovsky’s sense of coherence questionnaires. Pearson’s correlation coefficient and structural equations modeling were used to analyze the data in SPSS-22 and Smart PLS software. The results revealed that the path coefficient between spiritual health and psychological cohesion was positive and significant (P<0.01), the path coefficient between spiritual health and psychological hardiness was positive and significant (P<0.01), and the path coefficient between psychological hardiness and psychological cohesion was positive and significant (P<0.05). Besides, the path coefficient of the mediating role of psychological hardiness was positive and significant (P<0.05). In general, the research model had sufficient fit. Therefore, the results of the study convey the importance of spiritual health and psychological hardiness in the psychological cohesion of the elderly.
 
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