Impact of Emotional Regulation on the Quality of Life in Elderly People

노인의 감정조절이 삶의 질에 미치는 영향

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of elderly people's difficulties in emotional regulation on their quality of life and to suggest possible ways of improving their emotional regulation. The subjects in this study were 345 senior citizens who participated in community education programs and used senior centers. A survey was conducted in person, and the instrument used to check their difficulties in emotional regulation was Gratz & Roemer(2004)'s inventory that was rearranged to serve the purpose of this study. When a factor analysis was carried out, their emotional regulation difficulties were categorized into five factors, which were respectively named troubles in emotional response handling, difficulties in accurate emotional awareness, difficulties in emotional coping, and difficulties in emotional reception. The findings of the study were as follows: First, the senior citizens were different from one another in emotional regulation difficulties according to their personal characteristics involving gender, income, financial state, hospitalization experience over the past three months, and presence or absence of disease. Second, their quality of life significantly varied with gender, age, presence or absence of spouse, form of residence, education, income, financial state, hospitalization experience and presence or absence of disease. Third, as a result of investigating the influence of their emotional regulation difficulties on the overall quality of life, a better quality of life was found among those who were male and who had an income and suffered from fewer diseases. And a lower quality of life was found among the senior citizens who faced difficulties in emotional response handling, who had difficulties in emotional control and who lagged behind in terms of emotional coping. Accordingly, the emotional regulation difficulties of the senior citizens could be said to be closely linked to their quality of life. Given the findings of the study, in which way elderly people could be helped to improve their emotional regulation in consideration of their own personal characteristics was discussed, and how to classify their emotional regulation difficulties from various angles to relieve them of the troubles was suggested.

본 연구의 목적은 노인의 감정조절 어려움이 삶의 질에 어떤 영향을 미치고 있는지를 살펴보고 감정조절 어려움을 예방 또는 해결할 수 있는 방안을 제시하는 것이다. 조사는 65세 이상의 노인대학과 경로당을 이용하고 있는 노인 345명을 대상으로 방문 조사하였다. 감정조절 어려움에 대한 측정도구는 Gratz와 Roemer(2004)가 개발한 것을 본 연구에 적합하게 재구성하여 요인분석을 한 결과, 감정조절 어려움은 5가지 요인으로 재분류하여 내적 감정반응 처리곤란, 표출된 감정의 통제곤란, 명확한 감정인식의 곤란, 감정대처의 어려움, 감정수용의 어려움으로 명명하였다. 연구의 결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 성별과 수입유무, 경제적 상태, 과거 3개월 이내 입원력과 질환유무 등에서 개인특성에 따라 감정조절의 어려움에 차이가 나타났다. 둘째, 노인의 삶의 질은 성별, 연령, 배우자유무, 거주형태, 교육정도, 수입유무, 경제적 상태, 과거 입원력, 질환유무 등에서 집단 간 유의미한 차이가 있는 것으로 나타났다. 셋째, 노인의 감정조절의 어려움이 삶의 질에 미치는 영향을 삶의 질 전체로 분석한 결과, 개인특성에서는 남성노인이, 수입이 있으면서, 질환이 적은 경우에 삶의 질은 높게 나타났다. 그리고 감정반응에 대해 처리가 곤란하거나 감정통제가 잘 안되고, 감정처리능력이 부족할 때 노인의 삶의 질이 낮은 것으로 파악되었다. 따라서 감정조절의 어려움과 노인의 삶의 질과의 관련성은 높다고 할 수 있으며, 이러한 연구 결과를 기초로 개인특성에 따른 감정조절 어려움을 극복할 수 있는 접근방법과 노인의 감정조절 어려움을 다차원적으로 분류하여 경감 및 보완하기 위한 구체적인 방안을 제안하였다.