Reliability and validity of the PIL Meaning of Life Test and the Existential Scale in the Spanish elderly population. Preliminary data.

From the Logotherapeutic model (Frankl, 1994) the meaning of life (SV) is defined as the fundamental motivational force of the human being that guides him to face the different situations of life, granting coherence and personal identity even in adverse situations. Spiritual resources (self-distancing and self-transcendence) are abilities that help a person experience VS. Spiritual resources can be closed to situations of emptiness or existential crisis, making it difficult to face adverse situations. In old age, people must face changes and evolutionary tasks typical of this stage of the life spam that could imply losses and be experienced as critical situations that facilitate crises of meaning.

In the field of aging, there are few investigations that focus on the study of meaning in life and the analysis of the variables associated with it, as well as the programs designed for its development. The few studies carried out show that having a high sense of life and a high level of spiritual development is associated with better physical and mental health and a better quality of life in general.

The objectives of this study are: 1) to present preliminary psychometric data from the application to older people of two scales to assess SV and spiritual resources in older people, specifically: Purpose in Life Test (PIL; Crunbaugh and Maholic, 1964)) and the Existential Scale (Längle, Orgler, & Kundi, 2003); and 2) present descriptive data on these variables and their association with sociodemographic variables (gender, age, marital status) and psychological well-being (depression, anxiety, psychological well- being, and life satisfaction).

The sample is made up of 61 people, with a mean age of 71 years ( DT = 5), of which 67% are women who have voluntarily completed an online survey scheduled through the Qualtrics program. As part of a research project that is currently underway, this paper completes the preliminary data on the reliability and validity of the instruments, the descriptors of these variables in the sample of elderly people evaluate.