1. Introduction
1.1. Necessity and Purpose of Study
According to the statistics for the elderly from the National Statistics Office in Korea, the rate of the ageing population is increasing exponentially every year. The speed at which the Korean population is entering into the elderly and super-elderly population is expected to surpass those of other advanced countries, such as Japan and European countries (Statistics Office, 2019). With advances in medical technology and public health, the lifestyles of the modern civilization have resulted in extended life expectancy. In accordance with these changes, there has been increased interest in the studies of leading successful and satisfactory lives for the elderly population, as well as social activities for the elderly (Jung, 2016).
Many factors play into having a successful and satisfactory life for the ageing population, but none is as crucial as health. In fact, health is also closely related to and has a high impact on the state of loneliness for the elderly population (Luanaigh & Lawlor, 2008). Today, many studies dealt with the issue of loneliness in elderly population (Keith, 1986). It was revealed that one of the things needed for the elderly to lead a healthy social retirement life was the ability for anger control and \interpersonal relationships (Keith, 1986; Luanaigh Lawlor, 2008; Savikko, et al., 2005; Steed, et al., 2007; Victor, et al., 2005).
In terms of past research conducted for factors that negatively affected the elderly to lead a healthy social retirement life were emotional and psychological aspects, such as depression and anxiety, and suicidal tendencies (Luanaigh & Lawlor, 2008). However, studies on how the elderly could increase self-integration in social activities through anger control and interpersonal relationships to lead a healthy retirement life were conspicuously lacking.
In the later years of life, the physiological, physical and psychosocial role functions decrease, but the psychological need to satisfy basic needs through interpersonal relationships remains (Luanaigh & Lawlor, 2008). However, in reality there are many issues of interpersonal and anger control problems that arise which causes psychological strain and isolation.
Recently, the life values of the elderly have shifted from just living a long life to living a healthy and happy life with many interpersonal relationships. Therefore, it is highly likely that the future elderly populations will participate in diverse social activities more independently, and thus will need to necessarily prepare for a satisfactory social retirement life reduced of the problems that had impeded the elderly from this life course (Lee & Park, 2009).
In line with this need, it was observed that programs offering education on interpersonal relationships and anger control needed for social activities were sparse and lacking (Spielberger, 1979). As such, in order for the elderly population to experience life satisfaction and happiness through various social activities, it is important for them to increase interpersonal relationships and anger control and resolve the issue of self-integration. For the elderly, solving the question of self-integration will be a crucial factor in determining the success of elderly life through interpersonal relationships, and this study will aim to focus on how generativity will be able to resolve various issues for retirement life.
The current research will observe how the degree of interpersonal relationships affects anger control, as well as the mediating effects of generativity on the relationships between interpersonal relationships, anger control, and self-integration. Thus, methods to lead a more happier retirement life through the increase of anger control will be investigated.
For this, the following research questions are proposed. First, what are the effects of the elderly’s’ interpersonal skills on anger control?
Second, what are the effects of the elderly’s’ interpersonal skills on their self-integration?
Third, in the influence of the elderly’s’ interpersonal skills on anger control, does generativity play a mediating role?
Fourth, in the influence of the elderly’s’ interpersonal skills on self-integration, does generativity play a mediating role?
2. Review of Literature
2.1. Relationship between Interpersonal Skills and Interpersonal Relationships
Anger is an emotion that harms interpersonal relationships and fury, irritability, as well as other types also pertain to this category as well. Anger in a social setting that is not appropriate for such emotional outbursts results in interpersonal relationship issues within a group activity. In addition, anger control is where the self is aware of their own anger and undergo strategic processes to calm their anger in order to have smooth human relations communications (Spielberger, 1979). Thus, it can be seen that anger, which is a basic human emotion, is able to adapt well to a group when it is properly expressed, but improper expression of this emotion results in negative effects for communication and relationship maintenance in a group. Not only this, but in social settings, anger can have a positive effect in that it can be used to shift things to work out the way one wants things to be done, as well as bring a change in interpersonal relationships. However, a negative side to anger is that it brings about high blood pressure as well as depression or other psychological problems and offer damaging results to personal relationships (Lee, 2000).
Interpersonal relationship abilities refer to the ability to recognize and control the state of an angry emotion caused by a stimulus and control that emotion in order to express it in a stable manner (Kim, 2009). Thus, awareness and monitoring of an angry state through a variety of strategies to calm anger means keeping calm, being patient, and attempting to understand the other person. Problem solving can be said to be the state at which one does not get emotional and clearly express what made them angry, as well as verbalize ones’ opinions and attempt to calmly consider the other person in a rational way (Koo, 2016).
Thus, interpersonal relationship ability refers to how well a person can control their anger and not harm others around them, but rather express their anger verbally in a clear manner to the other person. As many previous studies have demonstrated, the expression of anger creates problems in interpersonal relationships and repression of anger creates depression as well as other psychological maladies (Deffenbacher, et al).
2.2. Relationship between Interpersonal Relationships and Self-integration in the Elderly
Kim (2016) stated that interpersonal relationships refer to the relationship between person to person and that anyone can experience conflict in these relationships at any time. Object relational theorists believe that the source of all human anxiety stems from interpersonal relationships and thus emphasized the importance of mutual communication and interpersonal relationships in psychological therapy (Park & Yeon, 2009). Interpersonal relationships are an integral part of life and cannot be separated from our lives. Therefore, people want to understand the personality of other people as a means of predicting the types of actions others will take in order to get what they want from interaction with others. This is because personality in an interpersonal connection is the most certain way to glimpse into the other person.
Erikson (1963) mentioned that the last level of psychological and social development in life was self-integration. When the elderly reach self-integration, their ability to accept life and face death without fear increases, but when self-integration is not achieved, they have a hard time accepting death and resent others, as well as show a tendency to depression. Ego integrity is a comprehensive and general concept that reflects on the psychological well-being of old age. A person who achieves self-integration recognizes life as a result of his or her choice, accepts past and present life, and experiences maturity in integrating past experiences with the present (Kim & Ahn, 2013). In addition, people who have achieved self-integration are grateful for the circumstances around them, have confidence in themselves, are not afraid of change, and are flexible in relationships with those around him to achieve harmony and positively accept death comfortably. When self-integration is achieved in old age, life becomes satisfactory and people become psychologically and socially mature, but in the case that self-integration is not achieved, the elderly are susceptible to feelings of inferiority, loneliness, depression, anxiety, and despair, as well as a strong fear of death, leading to unsatisfactory old age (Kim, 2016). Therefore, the elderly form a society as human beings and have various and countless interpersonal relationships with others, and the problem of interpersonal relationships can be experienced by anyone. Since these interpersonal problems are the root cause of all anxiety, the importance of mutual communication and interpersonal relationships is needed.
2.3. Relationship between Anger Control and Self-integration
In the process of interpersonal relationships, people who are inclined to confront the other person tend to think of themselves superior to other people and also show the need to dominate, manipulate, and attack others in expressing their emotions. People with these tendencies of high confidence in themselves have a negative effect on depression (Seo & Yang, 2010). The instigation of anger arises from various stimuli. According to Dahlen and Martin (2004), in general people with higher levels of irrational belief tend to more directly express or restrain their anger and the higher the anger, the more likely they are to feel that their self-esteem is being attacked in the cases of negative events. Additionally, individual characteristics such as low self-esteem or personality are triggered by guilt, shame and perfectionist tendencies based on one’s own beliefs.
In a study by Chae (2001) on the relationship between anger control and self-esteem, it was discovered that the higher the self-esteem, the more likely a person is able to control their anger and adapt well to the surrounding environment. But, those with low self-esteem tended to have distorted mindsets by self-immersive thinking and were unable to adapt well to their surroundings and group activities. People with low self-esteem were more likely to be angered by failure to control their emotions than those who did not have low self-esteem, and experience fear of interpersonal failure due to high anxiety and lack of confidence.
In summary of the previous studies mentioned above, anger is a general behavior that is triggered by various stimuli contrary to ones’ desires and beliefs and can be thought as an emotional response to protect oneself. This is related to self-preservation and self-esteem and if it is utilized effectively and in a flexible appropriate manner, it can maintain psychological health and increase self-esteem without damaging others around them.
2.4. Relationship between Anger Control, Interpersonal Relationships, and Generativity
The According to the activity theory of Havighurst (1977) and Albrecht (1980), in order to have a successful elderly lifestyle, it is important for them to participate in social activities. Generativity is an important aspect of confirming an individuals’ sense of self and offers a way to create and maintain a positive self-image. Thus, social activities in the elderly have a positive effect on their sense of self and increases generativity. Additionally, according to a study on the elderly volunteer activities and feelings of generativity, it was revealed that those who participated in volunteer work were more likely to experience higher levels of generativity. Rossi (2001) found that in studying the results of generativity in middle-aged and the elderly, volunteer work was the most powerful predictor to improve generativity. This was also confirmed in a study conducted by Lawford (2005), who showed similar results in the positive correlation between volunteer work and generativity.
In relation to the social activities of the elderly, social participation motivations and participation satisfaction had a positive effect on generativity, but the duration of participation did not have such correlations (Lee, 2013). This infers that when the elderly participates in social activities, they form interpersonal relationships and from this they are able to lessen the feelings of loneliness and negative psychological thoughts. Thus, it can be said that generativity affects the elderly in their ability for anger control and self-integration. In addition, according to studies by Kim and Ahn (2013), it was revealed that the elderly's generativity had a positive effect on their sense of self-integration ad sub-factors in life satisfaction and acceptance. Thus, it could be seen that generativity has an influence on interpersonal relationships and is also a predictive factor that could improve self-integration (Torges, 2008; Jacquelyn & Nicole, 2006; Erikson, 1964; Hannah, 1996; Ryff & Heincke, 1983; Cynthia, 2008).
3. Methodology
3.1. Research subjects
There are many legal and social regulations regarding the standards of the elderly, and in this current study, people over 60 years of age were considered to be the elderly and were the test subjects. Second, the elderly that are residing in the areas of Seoul and Gyeonggi area were investigated. Third, the subjects of the survey were those that were able to communicate on a daily basis and could voluntarily agree to the survey, as well as those where accurate information about themselves could be collected.
3.2. Sampling Method and Data Collection
The subjects of this study were randomly selected and 300 elderly people living in Seoul and Gyeonggi area were surveyed who had interpersonal relationships through group activities such as senior citizens' halls, welfare centers, senior citizen's colleges, and other facilities. The information collection period was from July 10 to July 20, 2020, and the survey was conducted using a structured questionnaire.
The survey method was conducted by a person that personally visited the elderly, and it was the role of the investigator to explain to the elderly that did not understand a portion of the survey. In order for this to occur, groups were formed for the survey, with around 3 to 4 elderly people in a group, but if the elderly could fill out the form themselves, then they were made to do so independently. Of the questionnaires filled out, 271 copies of the valid questionnaire were used for the analysis of this study, excluding 29 questionnaires with omissions or errors.
3.3. Variable Measurement Tools
3.3.1. Independent Variable
A. Interpersonal skills
The interpersonal relationship ability scale used was produced by Morganett (1994) and partially modified by Ahn (2013) for the anger control tests. The questionnaire consisted of a total of 10 items, 6 of them positive and 4 of them negative. A Likert 5-point scale was used, with the higher score indicating better interpersonal abilities. The study conducted by Ahn (2013) revealed the reliability coefficient Cronbach's ⍺ as .703, while in this study the reliability coefficient Cronbach's ⍺ was .814.
3.3.2. Dependent Variables
A. Anger control abilities
In order to measure anger control scale of interpersonal relationships, this study utilized the scale of Guerney (1971) on human relationships that was reconstructed by Lee (2014). This survey had a total of 20 questions and 11 of them were positive, while 9 of them were negative. The subfactors were composed of 7 communication questions, 7 interpersonal relations within the group questions, and 6 general interpersonal relations questions. A Likert 5-point scale was used, with the higher score indicating better interpersonal abilities. Reverse scoring questions were reverse-coded, and if the score was high, interpersonal ability was considered to be good. The study conducted by Lee (2014) revealed the reliability coefficient Cronbach's ⍺ as .864 for communications, interpersonal relationships within a group to be .852, and general interpersonal relationships to be .857. In this current study, communications reliability coefficient Cronbach's ⍺ was .762, interpersonal relationships were .697, and general interpersonal relationships was .721.
B. Self-integration
The sense of self-integration is a concept that includes an attitude to feel calm and accept old age, an attitude towards life, as well as other things, and is the result of positive adaptation in old age. As for the scale of self-integration, 16 items developed by Hong (2000) were used. This scale was composed of content such as an attitude toward feeling calm and accepting old age and an attitude toward life. A Likert 4-point scale was used, with 1 point being strongly disagree, 2 points being disagree, 3 points being agree, and 4 points being strongly agree. The numbers 1, 3, 5, 9, 13, and 15 were converted to an inverse score. A total of 16 to 64 points were in range and the higher the score, the higher the self-conducted by Lawford (2005), who showed similar results in the positive correlation between volunteer work and generativity
In relation to the social activities of the elderly, social participation motivations and participation satisfaction had a positive effect on generativity, but the duration of participation did not have such correlations (Lee, 2013). This infers that when the elderly participates in social activities, they form interpersonal relationships and from this they are able to lessen the feelings of loneliness and negative psychological thoughts. Thus, it can be said that generativity affects the elderly in their ability for anger control and self-integration. In addition, according to studies by Kim and Ahn (2013), it was revealed that the elderly's generativity had a positive effect on their sense of self-integration ad sub-factors in life satisfaction and acceptance. Thus, it could be seen that generativity has an influence on interpersonal relationships and is also a predictive factor that could improve self-integration (Torges, 2008; Jacquelyn & Nicole, 2006; Erikson, 1964; Hannah, 1996; Ryff & Heincke, 1983; Cynthia, 2008).
3. Methodology
3.1. Research Subjects
There are many legal and social regulations regarding the standards of the elderly, and in this current study, people over 60 years of age were considered to be the elderly and were the test subjects. Second, the elderly that are residing in the areas of Seoul and Gyeonggi area were investigated. Third, the subjects of the survey were those that were able to communicate on a daily basis and could voluntarily agree to the survey, as well as those where accurate information about themselves could be collected.
3.2. Sampling Method and Data Collection
The subjects of this study were randomly selected and 300 elderly people living in Seoul and Gyeonggi area were surveyed who had interpersonal relationships through group activities such as senior citizens' halls, welfare centers, senior citizen's colleges, and other facilities. The information collection period was from July 10 to July 20, 2020, and the survey was conducted using a structured questionnaire.
The survey method was conducted by a person that personally visited the elderly, and it was the role of the investigator to explain to the elderly that did not understand a portion of the survey. In order for this to occur, groups were formed for the survey, with around 3 to 4 elderly people in a group, but if the elderly could fill out the form themselves, then they were made to do so independently. Of the questionnaires filled out, 271 copies of the valid questionnaire were used for the analysis of this study, excluding 29 questionnaires with omissions or errors.
3.3. Variable Measurement Tools
3.3.1. Independent Variable
A. Interpersonal skills
The interpersonal relationship ability scale used was produced by Morganett (1994) and partially modified by Ahn (2013) for the anger control tests. The questionnaire consisted of a total of 10 items, 6 of them positive and 4 of them negative. A Likert 5-point scale was used, with the higher score indicating better interpersonal abilities. The study conducted by Ahn (2013) revealed the reliability coefficient Cronbach's ⍺ as .703, while in this study the reliability coefficient Cronbach's ⍺ was .814.
3.3.2. Dependent Variables
A. Anger control abilities
In order to measure anger control scale of interpersonal relationships, this study utilized the scale of Guerney (1971) on human relationships that was reconstructed by Lee (2014). This survey had a total of 20 questions and 11 of them were positive, while 9 of them were negative. The subfactors were composed of 7 communication questions, 7 interpersonal relations within the group questions, and 6 general interpersonal relations questions. A Likert 5-point scale was used, with the higher score indicating better interpersonal abilities. Reverse scoring questions were reverse-coded, and if the score was high, interpersonal ability was considered to be good. The study conducted by Lee (2014) revealed the reliability coefficient Cronbach's ⍺ as .864 for communications, interpersonal relationships within a group to be .852, and general interpersonal relationships to be .857. In this current study, communications reliability coefficient Cronbach's ⍺ was .762, interpersonal relationships were .697, and general interpersonal relationships was .721.
B. Self-integration
The sense of self-integration is a concept that includes an attitude to feel calm and accept old age, an attitude towards life, as well as other things, and is the result of positive adaptation in old age.
As for the scale of self-integration, 16 items developed by Hong (2000) were used. This scale was composed of content such as an attitude toward feeling calm and accepting old age and an attitude toward life. A Likert 4-point scale was used, with 1 point being strongly disagree, 2 points being disagree, 3 points being agree, and 4 points being strongly agree. The numbers 1, 3, 5, 9, 13, and 15 were converted to an inverse score. A total of 16 to 64 points were in range and the higher the score, the higher the self-integration was in the elderly. In the study of Hong (2000), the reliability coefficient Cronbach's ⍺ was .82. In this study, the reliability coefficient Cronbach's ⍺ for overall self-integration was Cronbach's α=.834, and acceptance of the past and present was Cronbach'sα=.833, and attitude towards life was reliability coefficient Cronbach's α=.655
3.3.3. Parameters
A. Generativity
The generativity defined as a parameter was “nurturing the next generation, creating and nurturing new cultures, having an interest in leading and teaching the next generation, and taking actions that benefit the society as a whole and having an attitude that is valuable for families and society as a whole.” The present study used the scale created by McAdams and Aubin (1992), called the LGS (Loyola Generativity Scale), which revised for the elderly to be able to understand more clearly. This scale by McAdams and Aubin (1992) and originally included 6 questions of personal generativity and 6 questions of general generativity, but after performing exploratory factor analysis by Park (2013), the scale that was unified into 11 questions were utilized in this study. A Likert 5-point scale was used, with 1 point being strongly disagree, and 5 points being strongly agree, and the points were added in total and analyzed. Thus, the lowest point was 11 points to a maximum of 55 points. The higher the points, the higher the level of generativity was. The study had the reliability coefficient Cronbach's ⍺ of .906.
4. Results
4.1. Demographic Analysis Results
In this present study, the gender demographic characteristics of the questionnaire subjects were 95 men (31.7%) and 205 women (68.3%). In terms of age distribution, there were 180 people (60%) between the ages of 60 to 65, 60 people (20%) between the ages of 66 to 70, 29 people (9.7%) between the ages of 71 to 75, and 31 people (10.3%) between the ages of 76 to 79. The academic background of the participants were no degree 12 people (4.0%), elementary school degree 37 people (12.3%), middle school degree 41 people (13.7%), high school degree 103 people (34.3%), and college degree or higher to be 107 people (35.7%). Those that had a religion were 161 people (53.7%) and those that didn't were 139 people (46.3%).
In addition, people that lived alone were 65 people (21.7%), people that lived as with their significant others were 129 people (43%), those living with their daughters/sons or other family members were 90 people (30%), those living with unmarried daughters/sons were 12 people (4.0%), and other cases were 4 people (1.3%). In the health analysis, those that stated they were very healthy were 12 people (4.0%), those that were healthy were 106 people (35.3%), those with average health were 134 people (44.7%), those in bad health were 41 people (13.7%), and those in very bad health were 7 people (2.3%). In terms of financial states of the participants, those that said they were in a bad financial state were 12 people (4.0%), those that were not in a good financial state were 62 people (20.7%), average financial state was 150 people (50%), those in good financial states were 66 people (22%), and those that were in very good financial state were 10 people (3.3%) (See Table 1).
Table 1: Demographic Features
4.2. Reliability Analysis of Measurement Tools
The incorporation of abstract concepts in the social sciences area of research means that reliability must be secured. Reliability refers to how consistently a phenomena or subjects are measured. In other words, assuming that the researcher repeats the survey again for a questionnaire survey conducted on a research question, reliability is a measure of how much the results will match the original measurement each time. In general, there are methods of measuring reliability such as the test-retest method, parallel forms method, Inter-Rater, and the internal consistency method. The current study utilized the internal consistency reliability of Cronbach's alpha. George and Mallery (2016) stated that in the social sciences area, if the Cronbach's alpha is over 0.8, then the reliability factor is judged to be sound. Thus, the results of reliability analysis of measured variables in this study are as follows. The analysis showed that reliability coefficient Cronbach's ⍺ for anger control was 0.737, interpersonal relationship Cronbach's ⍺ was 0.835, generativity Cronbach's ⍺ was 0.942, and self-integration’s Cronbach's ⍺ was 0.724 (See Table 2).
Table 2: Results of Reliability Analysis of Measured Variables
4.3. Analysis of the Feasibility of Measurement Tools
In order to secure the validity of the constituent factors, exploratory factor analysis and ask-price factor analysis were conducted as shown below.
4.3.1. Factor analysis
Exploratory factor analysis can be said to be an analysis method which reduces variables and derives meaningful concepts by grouping a number of measured variables among variables with high correlations. In the social sciences area, for the extraction of measurement variables, the principle of component analysis is frequently used, and has the main advantage of being able to obtain a small number of factors while minimizing the loss of information in the process of condensing a number of variables. The analysis results are presented below, as seen in Table 3.
Table 3: Exploratory Factor Analysis Results
The factor extraction method was performed based on the principal component method, the factor extraction criterion was the eigenvalue 1 or more, the factor rotation was the Varimax method, and the factor loading value was 0.50 or more. The results of the analysis showed that the independent variable of interpersonal relationships was 1 factor, the parameter of generativity was 1 factor, and 2 factors for the dependent variable showed that a total of 4 factors of anger control and SI were derived as was set at the beginning of the study. The cumulative total variance of factor analysis was 67.217%, KMO(Kaiser-Meyer-Ollkin) was .861, and in Bartlett's test of sphericity the X2 value was 13,867 (p<.001), showing that there was not a problem with the appropriateness of the model. But, in the analysis process, several variables corresponding to each factor were removed.
Table 4: Confirmatory Factor Analysis
For variables derived through confirmatory factor analysis, additional verification of the measurement model was conducted through confirmatory factor analysis. As a result of the analysis, it was found that the average variance extraction value (AVE) was greater than 0.5, and the conceptual reliability (CR) value was also greater than 0.7.
4.3.2. Correlation Analysis
As a result of the correlation analysis between the measured variables, anger management was found to have a correlation between interpersonal relationships (r=.512, p<.05), an above average positive correlation between generativity (r=.621, p<.05) and an above average positive correlation between interpersonal relationships. It was also observed that there was a minor positive correlation in self-integration with generativity (r=.312, p<.01) and interpersonal relationships (r=.541, p<.05).
Table 5: Correlation Analysisf
Note: Diagonal value is the square root of AVE and All other values are significant at p<.05
4.4. Research Problem Analysis
Structural equation was used to verify the research problem. As a result of the analysis, the model fit was x2=436.79 (df=235, p< .001), Normed x2=2.25, CFI= .910, TLI= .917, IFI= .941, NFI= .926, RMSEA= .050, confirming that there was no significant problem with the model fit. As a result of verifying the first and second problems, anger management ability had a statistically significant positive effect on interpersonal relationship ability (β=0.657, t=4.375), and the multiple correlation square (SMC) value of anger management ability was 0.618. It can be observed that the stronger the anger management ability, the better the interpersonal relationship ability was, which was similar to the results of previous studies. In addition, it was found that there was a positive effect on the factor of self-integration (β=0.497, t=3.279) as well. The multiple correlation square (SMC) value of interpersonal relationship ability was 0.594. As mentioned, it can be observed that the stronger the anger management ability, the better the self-integration ability was, which was similar to the results of previous studies.
On the other hand, as a result of verifying the third and fourth problems of the study, it was found that the anger management ability had a statistically significant positive effect on generativity (β=0.827, t=5.682). Moreover, it was found that generativity had a statistically significant positive effect on the feeling of self-integration (β=0.436, t=3.324), and that the effect generativity had on interpersonal relationships had a statistically positive correlation (β=0.358, t=2.980). The positive relationship that was established in the relationship between the variables in the research problem was found to be significant and the multiple correlation square (SMC) value, which means the explanatory power of generativity, was 0.563. According to the analysis results, it can be seen that the anger management ability has a positive effect on generativity, and that generativity also has a positive effect on the sense of self-integration and interpersonal relationship ability as well.
4.5. Verification of the Mediation Effect
The bootstrap method was used to confirm the effects of the anger management ability, self-integration, and interpersonal relationship ability of this structural model on generativity.
Table 6: Mediating Effect Analysis
The results are as follows. The mediating effects of anger management abilities on interpersonal relationships by generativity was shown to be statistically significant 0.261(p<.05), but the mediating effects of self-integration through generativity was not shown to be significant 0.107(p=0.13).
5. Conclusions
5.1. Summary of Research Results and Implications
The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationship between the factors of anger management ability, self-integration and interpersonal relationship ability, and the mediating role of generativity in correlation with these factors. Thus, through this research, the effect of interpersonal relationships on anger management ability and self-integration was observed. Not only that, the effects of interpersonal relationship abilities on anger management and self-integration and the mediating role of generativity, was also closely examined. Through this, it can be seen that the anger management ability is relatively high compared to those under the age of 60, and based on their experience, the study aimed to determine whether the influence of self-integration and interpersonal ability played a role. To this end, an analysis of 300 elderly people who used the welfare facilities in the Seoul and Gyeonggi region was achieved through a structured questionnaire. The main findings and results of the analysis are as follows.
First, anger management ability was found to have a direct positive effect on interpersonal relationship abilities. In other words, assuming that the elderly are always angry, there are several factors that positive effect on interpersonal relationships. Those include having several methods of getting angry without affecting those around them, being able to control their emotions at any time, knowing when they could avoid a fight, being able to control those that give them a hard time, and being able to talk to a person without becoming angry. In other words, they showed a strong tendency to be able to communicate well with those around them, trust others, and voluntarily participate in many things.
Second, it was shown that anger management ability had a direct and positively correlated effect on self-integration. Thus, the more often the elderly suffer from getting angry, and the more often they think that they are angry, the more they have a few ways to get angry without harming others. They could control their emotions whenever they wanted to, got angry in a large way once when they were really angry, had times when they did not know what to do when they were too angry, knew when they could avoid a fight, was able to control those that give them a hard time, and was able to talk to a person without becoming angry were some of the characteristics that had a positive effect on the formation of self-integration. Thus, in this case it was very likely that even if they had regret in the past and could live again, they would choose to live in a similar fashion, and had a strong will to want to change the past if they could.
Third, the ability to control anger was found to have a positive effect on generativity, and generativity was found to have a positive effect on interpersonal relationship ability, but it was not statistically significant. Thus, the more often the elderly suffer from getting angry, and the more often they think that they are angry, the more they have a few ways to get angry without harming others. They could control their emotions whenever they wanted to, got angry in a large way once when they were really angry, had times when they did not know what to do when they were too angry, knew when they could avoid a fight, was able to control those that give them a hard time, and was able to talk to a person without becoming angry were some of the characteristics that had a positive effect on the formation of generativity. The stronger the elderly had control of the anger management abilities, the more they thought they had contributed to society, and had helped others grow as well. In addition, there was a strong tendency to think that they had done valuable work and voluntary dedication to their neighbors in need. Ultimately, the formation of this sense of generativity was found to be a positive factor in being able to communicate well with people around them, such as colleagues and family.
Fourth, the anger management ability was found to have a positive effect on generativity, and generativity was found to have a positive effect on self-integration. Therefore, the more often the elderly suffer from getting angry, and the more often they think that they are angry, they could control their emotions whenever they wanted to, was able to avoid a fight well, and was able to talk to a person without becoming angry were some of the characteristics that had a positive effect on the formation of generativity. Thus, those with a higher control of anger management thought that they had a responsibility to contribute to society and made efforts to create new and positive relationships with others, as well as help others with doing the things that they did well. In addition, there was a strong tendency to think that one was doing something worthy to contribute to people, and that his or her contribution will continue to exist after their death. It can be seen that the elderly with these thoughts had a positive effect on self-integration. Thus, the elderly were proud of what they had done throughout their life, and felt worth in serving others, and felt that life at the present was the most comfortable.
5.2. Limitations and Directions for Future Research
The current study sought to examine the relationship of the structural model mediated by generativity in the relationship between the anger management ability of the elderly on self-integration and interpersonal relationship ability. But, in the relationship between the variables, the elderly with rich life experiences would consider the relationship between anger management ability and generativity to be a satisfaction factor, creating an impact on generativity. Additionally, it is assumed that generativity will confer the same impacts on self-integration and interpersonal relationships as well. But, the approach to these factors are in need of more research and will have to be approached with more depth than this paper offers. This is especially true for studies where the elderly are the main subjects.
Moreover, there is a need for supplementation in the relationship of the positive correlation generativity has on interpersonal relationships, as it was not statistically significant in this study. Lastly, in order to support the results of this study and to delve into further in-depth research, a study should be conducted that considers the past experiences of the elderly, the economic environment, the existence of small jobs, and the various regions that the elderly reside in.
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