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Park: Factors Influencing the Meaning of Life for Middle-aged Women
Original Article
Korean Journal of Women Health Nursing

Korean Journal of Women Health Nursing 2002; 8(2): 232-243.

Published online: 4 June 2013

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4069/kjwhn.2002.8.2.232

Factors Influencing the Meaning of Life for Middle-aged Women

Geum Ja Park*

*Associate professor, Department of Nursing, Kosin University, Korea.

Received 25 May 2002       Accepted 12 June 2002

Copyright © 2002 Korean Academy of Women's Health Nursing

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine factors influencing the meaning of life for middle-aged women.
The subjects for the study were 190 middle-aged women who live in Busan.
Data were collected from May 25 to June 20, 1999.
The instruments for this study were as follows : the meaning of life scale developed by Jung D. R(1978) ; the self-esteem scale developed by Ro, E. Y, Kwon, J. H.(1997) ; the volunteer activity scale developed by Park G. J.(1999), the marital satisfaction scale developed by Choi G. Y.(1999) ; and the health status scale developed by Kim S. Y. (1991).
SPSS PC+ was utilized for data analysis. Data were analysed according to frequency and percentage, mean and standard deviation, t-test, ANOVA, Sheffe's test and Pearson's correlation coefficients and stepwise multiple regression.
The reliability of the tools was tested by Cronbach's α : and it showed reliability scores of 0.88(for the meaning of life tool), 0.81(for the self-esteem tool), 0.94(for the marital satisfaction tool) and 0.78(for the health status tool).
The results were as follows:

  1. The scores showed that middle-aged women had a moderate level of meaning of life, with a mean of 30.31 and standard deviation of 6.24 (with values ranging from 12.00 to 48.00).

    The scores showed that middle-aged women had a moderate levels of self-esteem, with a mean of 28.92 and standard deviation of 4.67 (with values ranging from 10.00 to 40.00). The scores showed that middle-aged women had a very low level of volunteer activity, with a mean of 0.87 and standard deviation of 0.93(with values ranging from 0.00 to 1.00).
    The scores showed that middle-aged women had a moderate level of satisfaction in their marriages, with a mean of 31.99 and standard deviation of 7.84(with values ranging from 12.00 to 48.00).
    The scores showed that middle-aged women had a moderate level of health status, with a mean of 6.63 and standard deviation of 1.57(with values ranging from 3.00 to 9.00).

  2. There was a statistically significant difference of the meaning of life of middle-aged women according to their religion(F= 8.930, p= .000), christian (31.94±5.96) had more meaning th life than buddhists (28.40±6.23).

  3. There was a statistically significant correlations between the subject's self-esteem and the her meaning of life(r=0.477, p=0.000), the subject's level of volunteer activity and meaning of life(r= .428, p= .000), her level of marital satisfaction and meaning of life(r= .417, p= .000), and her level of health status and meaning of life(r= .261, p= .000) among these middle-aged women.

  4. Self-esteem was the highest factor influencing the level of meaning of life in middle-aged women. 40.0% of the total variance of levels of meaning of life by was dependent on self-esteem, volunteer activity, marital satisfaction and health status.

In conclusion, the higher the self-esteem and levels of volunteer activity, marital satisfaction, and health status of middle-aged women, the higher the meaning of life for them. Therefore, it is necessary to elevate levels of the self-esteem and volunteer activity, marital satisfaction and health status in order to help middle-aged women have more meaning of life.

Keywords: Middle-aged women, Meaning of life, Self esteem, Volunteer activity, Marital satisfaction, Health status

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