Effects of a Self-Transcendence Intervention Program on Self-Transcendence, Aging Anxiety, Sense of Well-Being, and Ego Integrity in Middle-Aged Women: A Randomized Experimental Study

Abstract

Purpose: To examine effects of a self-transcendence intervention program in middle-aged women using an equivalent control group pretest-posttest design.

Methods: Fifty-nine middle-aged women (29 in the experimental group and 30 in the control group for comparison) were selected as participants. Self-transcendence intervention was applied, and its effect was determined from May 15, 2020 to June 12, 2020. The self-transcendence intervention developed in this study considered social-cultural emotion and characteristics of middle-aged women based on Psychoeducational Approach to Transcendence and Health (PATH). Selftranscendence, aging anxiety, sense of wellbeing, and ego integrity before and after the experiment were examined. Collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Fisher exact test, ANCOVA (Analysis of Covariance), and MANCOVA (Multivariate Analysis of Covariance) with IBM SPSS 25 program.

Results: It appeared that the merged effect of self-transcendence intervention was significant (Wilks Lambda=.54, F=10.32, p<.001). Results of ANCOVA showed that self-transcendence intervention had significant effects on self-transcendence (F=39.68, p<.001), aging anxiety (F=5.73, p=.020), wellbeing (F=8.61, p=.005), and ego integrity (F=6.87, p=.011).

Conclusions: The self-transcendence intervention applied in this study had significant effects on self-transcendence, aging anxiety, wellbeing, and ego integrity of middle-aged women. These variables are known to be essential psychosocial competence and resources for successful aging of elderly. Therefore, this study provides evidence that self-transcendence intervention has positive effects on variables that play key roles in successful aging for other age groups as well as the elderly.