Nakagawa, T. (2008). A qualitative research on gerotranscendence of the Japanese elderly: results of a pilot study. Japanese journal of gerontology, 30(2), 365. University of Osaka, Institute of Human Science, Japan. takeshi@hus.osaka-u.ac.jp
BACKGROUND:
The current model of successful aging regards the following as main factors: maintenance of physical and cognitive function, and social participation. While the model is thought to suit the young-old, a new model of successful aging based on fragility is required for the old-old and oldest-old. The theory of gerotranscendence is taken up as the latter model in this research. According to Nakagawa (2007), reliability of the gerotranscendence scale translated into Japanese was low, and the result suggested that another proper scale has to be developed.
OBJECT:
The aim of the present study is to describe the construct of gerotranscendece, in order to formulate the scale. This time, results of a pilot study are reported.
METHODS:
Informants and data collection: In a previous study, 180 elderly people living in Kobe city answered questionnaires (Ibid.). The elderly who scored over 7 out of 9 points were asked to participate in the following interview survey. The interview survey was conducted with a sample of 5 men and 2 women aged 68-88 in November 2007. In addition, the researcher set up an appointment with each informant for an interview. It took about one hour. The interview was recorded on a tape and transcribed with the consent of an informant.
Procedure: Based on Tornstam (1997), the researcher explained to each informant about the signs of gerotranscendence and asked whether he/she was aware of those signs. To be specific, the researcher asked whether he/she understood the explanation and recognized some signs in him/herself. And then the researcher asked an informant about some signs among the following three dimensions of gerotranscendence: the cosmic dimension, the dimension of the self, the dimension of social and personal relationships. Moreover, when an informant displayed some signs, the researcher asked about the catalyst of them or from when an informant felt them.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION:
Every informant understood the explanation of a gerotranscender. However, 5 informants were just aware of some signs while 2 informants agreed with all or most of them. First, about 'time and childhood,' one of signs of gerotranscendence, 6 out of 7 informants just remembered the past. Atchley (1999) also suggested that this sign should be examined carefully. In addition, only one informant who felt the sign said, "Sometimes I feel as if my deceased spouse is there." Second, with regard to 'connection to earlier generations,' 5 informants felt the sign "naturally" or "with ages." Third, as for 'superficial relationships,' while one informant said, "I got involved in social thing," the other said, "I'm tired of a large circle of acquaintances." That is, there was no consistent pattern of social relationships. Last of all, the researcher asked each informant about the catalyst of signs of gerotranscendence. While some referred to a bereavement, a severe illness or an earthquake disaster, other answered, "[I started to feel the signs] naturally" or "there was no significant change in my life." This result may suggest that gerotranscendence is accelerated by aging and stressful experiences. However, the mechanism is unclear. Issues of this pilot study were that most of informants were the old-old and that the researcher didn't ask about all the signs of gerotranscendence. In a future study, the researcher should sample oldest-old informants and ask about all the signs in order to describe signs of a gerotranscender.
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