Narrative Group Therapy to Improve Aging Perceptions and Reduce Thanatophobia (Death Anxiety) in Older Adults

Abstract

Introduction: Narrative therapy is a psychological intervention focusing on remembering and reconstruction of the people's life events in ways that are of benefit to them, and reduce the impact of challenges in their lives. This study was performed to examine the effect of narrative group therapy (NGT) on aging perceptions and death anxiety among older adults.

Methods: Forty-seven subjects, elderly nursing home residents (Tehran, Iran) with the mean age of 69.2 ± 2.55 were selected and assigned to intervention (n = 24), and control groups (n = 23). The intervention group received eight 90 min weekly sessions of NGT, and data were collected at the baseline, post-test and one month follow-up.

Results: Compared to the control and baseline, NGT intervention was positively influenced the aging perceptions of participants, especially their emotional representations, as well as their beliefs about aging consequences and control over experiences relating to aging. NGT was also found to be effective in the reduction of death anxiety, which were also sustained over the time with significant interaction effect between group and test times (p < 0.05).

Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the first study investigating the psychological interventions for aging perceptions, as well as NGT for death anxiety in older adults. The intervention was effective to improve the aging perceptions and reduce death anxiety and could be recommended for elderly nursing home residents.