Predictive Ability of Cognitive Distortions and Death Anxiety in Quality of Life Among a Sample of Elderly in Palestine

Abstract

The study aims to identify the predictive ability of cognitive distortions and death anxiety in the quality of life among elderly in Palestine, and the level of each of them, and the differences due to: gender, educational level, income level, using the descriptive correlative approach, by applying the study tools on an available sample, which includes 108 elderly people in Palestine. The results show that the level of cognitive distortions and its fields among elderly in Palestine is moderate, with an average of (2.79), draw a percentage (55.8%), and the field of “amplification and underestimation / simplification” is the highest, while the field of “all or nothing” is the lowest. The level of death anxiety and its domains is also moderate, with an average of death anxiety is (2.91), draw a percentage (58.2%), and the domain of "fear of fatal diseases" ranked first, while the domain of "the idea of death control" came the last. The level of quality of life and its domains does not differ from the moderate level, with an average of (3.55), draw a percentage (71.0%), and the "psychological quality of life" domain is the lowest, while the "healthy quality of life" is the lowest. The results show that there is a statistically significant effect of both cognitive distortions and death anxiety in predicting quality of life, and that both cognitive distortions and death anxiety explain together (41.9%) of the percentage of variance in quality of life; In other words, the two variables: cognitive distortions and death anxiety, have an important and basic role in predicting the quality of life. The results indicates that there are statistically significant differences in the two areas of cognitive distortions: all or nothing, jumping to results, due to the educational level variable, in favor of less than high school, while the differences are not significant in cognitive distortions according to: gender, income level, and the differences are also not significant in either death anxiety or quality of life, according to: gender, educational level, income level.