Abstract:

Background . The number of older adults in the US population is increasing (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2004). Understanding factors that will allow these older adults to continue living life with meaning, despite these chronic illnesses, will become increasingly important. Self-transcendence is professed to allow older adults to organize the process of living, aging, and dying into a meaningful process. Self-transcendence has been linked with health promoting experiences which lead to increased levels of well-being (Reed, 2003). Health promotion behaviors are important in order to prevent disease, detect disease at an early stage, and self-manage chronic disease. There is little evidence in the literature examining self-transcendence with the physical realm such as health promotion behaviors.

Objective . The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between the human characteristic factors of self-transcendence and death anxiety to older adults' performance of health promoting behaviors.

Research Hypothesis . Controlling for depression and functional status older adults with higher levels of self-transcendence and less death anxiety will participate in more health promotion behaviors. This study proposed that death anxiety would mediate the relationship between self-transcendence and health promotion behavior.

Method . A descriptional/correlational design was used with a sample size of 125 older adults (65 and older) from a small southern city.

Results . The hypothesis is partially supported. Self-transcendence accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in health promotion behavior (8%) after controlling for functional status and depression. There was not a significant increase in the variation of health promotion behavior when death anxiety was entered into the equation. Therefore, the mediating hypothesis was not supported.

Discussion . The results of this study provide evidence that the developmental resource, self-transcendence, may assist older adults in accepting the changes that come with aging, especially those related to performing health promotion behaviors. Although death anxiety was not determined to mediate the relationship between self-transcendence and health promotion behaviors, death anxiety was negatively correlated with self-transcendence. Death anxiety may be one of the factors that influence the developmental process of self-transcendence. The results of this study supported the hypothesis that people with increased self-transcendence will have lower death anxiety and increased health promotion behavior.