MEANING IN LIFE AND QUALITY OF LIFE AMONG PRE-RETIREMENT AGE CHULALONGKORN UNIVERSITY STAFF, THAILAND

Abstract

Meaning in life is a primary psychological construct, people with meaning in life have higher sense of belonging, healthy behaviors, and happiness. Although meaning in life is important health determinate, not many studies have been published. The purposes of this study were to describe and find the relationship between meaning in and quality of life among pre-retirement age. The sample consisted of randomly chosen 296 ageing Chulalongkorn University (CU) staff. A questionnaire composed of 3 parts; 1) socio-demographic characteristics, 2) the Meaning in Life Questionnaire including the presence of meaning (MLQP) and the search for meaning (MLQS), and 3) the WHO Quality of Life-BREF-THAI (QOL). Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, and correlational methods.

The study found that half of aging CU staff were classified as having a good quality of life, while none of them was classified as poor. Moreover, almost all of the sample have found their purpose and continued searching for further meaning. The results from correlational methods showed that there was a significant positive relationship between MLQP and QOL (r = 0.532, p < 0.001) and MLQS was significantly negatively related to QOL (r = -0.197, p < 0.001).