Time perspective, death anxiety and emotional regulation processes in older adults

Abstract

In late life, time perspective was regarded as one of the important variables relating people’s well-being. It may also serve as a coping mechanism against death anxiety, a major concern of older adults. A number of previous research were done in Western population to examine the relationship between time and death anxiety of older adults (Dickstein and Blatt, 1966; Hendrick & Hendrick, 1977; Nurmi, Pullianen, & Salmela-Aro, 1992; Quinn & Reznikoff, 1985; Rappaport, Fossler, Bross, & Gilden, 1993), but no such research was done in Chinese population. Thus, the present study aimed at studying the relationship between time perspective and death anxiety in a sample of 165 Chinese older adults residing in Hong Kong. This study adopted three multidimensional inventories in studying time perspective and death anxiety, namely, Zimbardo’s Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI), Transcendental-Future Time Perspective (TFTP) and Chinese Death Anxiety Inventory (CDAI). Results showed that death anxiety was unrelated to future time orientation, while present hedonistic and past negative time perspective was positively related to after-death anxiety. Also, death and dying anxiety was predictive of past positive time perspective. Moreover, transcendental-future time perspective was unrelated with death anxiety. The results discussed in the context of socioemotional selectivity theory. The present study proposed that older adults tended to adjust their time orientation, especially focused on the positive sides, to cope with the death anxiety. Therefore, it is suggested that emotional functioning was not declined, or even improved in late life.