Life Stress, Attitude toward Death, and Meaning in Life among Middle-Aged Women

This study was designed to investigate life stress, attitude toward death, and meaning in life and to identify factors contributing to meaning in life among middle-aged women. The participants were 220 middle-aged women of D city, Korea. The data were collected through a structured questionnaire from October 4 to 30, 2010, and analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Scheffe’s test, correlation coefficient, and stepwise multiple regression with SPSS WIN 14.0. Life stress, attitude toward death, and meaning in life significantly differed according to general characteristics in the middle-aged women. Moreover, life stress was negatively correlated with attitude toward death and meaning in life; attitude toward death was positively correlated with meaning in life. Factors influencing meaning in life were life stress, volunteer activity, religion, economic status and attitude toward death, which explained about 36.9% of the total variance. These results suggest that a support program that considers general characteristics should be developed and implemented in order to improve meaning in life and the quality of life of middle-aged women.