Comparative study of self-transcendence, spiritual well-being, optimism and meaning in life among retirees and post-retirement employees

Abstract EN

The purpose of this study was to investigate the inter-correlations of self-transcendence, spiritual well-being, optimism and meaning in life.

Additionally, the aim was to find out the differences in mean scores of self-transcendence, spiritual well-being, optimism and meaning in life between retirees and post-retirement employees.

The sample consisted of people with bachelor's degree.

Retirees sample consisted of 60 participants (52 men, and 8 women), while post-retirement employees consisted of 60 participants (all of them were men).

The Self-Transcendence Scale (STS) (Reed, 2018), The Spirituality Index of Well-Being (SIWB) (Daaleman & Frey, 2004), The Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R) (Scheier, Carver & Bridges, 1994) and Meaning in Life Questionnaire (Steger, Frazier, Oishi & Kaler, 2006) were used.

The data were analyzed with Pearson correlation.

The t-test was used.

Findings indicated that there were significant positive correlations between self-transcendence, spiritual well-being, optimism and meaning in life.

Self-transcendence correlated positively with spiritual well-being, optimism, and meaning in life.

Spiritual well-being correlated positively with optimism and meaning in life.

There were differences in mean scores of self-transcendence, optimism and meaning in life between retirees and post-retirement employees.

However there was not difference in spiritual well-being between the two groups.

Findings were discussed and conclusion was included.