industry & reform that are important and meaningful to them , that help them to experience a sense of purpose in their day-to-day lives . But at the same time , not to perhaps push too hard into areas that tax their resources , whether that ’ s their physical resources , their energy , or their cognition .
What sort of activities are we talking about in general ? And what sort of activities did you find were consistently rated as meaningful ? We looked at a range of activities that might be regarded as characterising someone ’ s typical day : from self-care activities , to housework , leisure activity , watching television , social activity , and more productive activities such as things associated with pursuing a particular goal . And it was the most social and productive activities that tended to score higher on meaning , but there weren ’ t huge differences .
I think it varies quite a lot from person to person , because for someone who ’ s in perhaps poor health , just being able to live independently and do the things that they need to do to support themselves in a simple day-to-day way might for that particular person still be something they see as meaningful , because it has that connection to their independence .
Were there any other common traits among that cohort that you looked at ? One thing we looked at was conscientiousness and we were interested in whether that might play a moderating role in the relationships we were interested in , but it turns out that it didn ’ t play a major role in that sense . But apart from controlling for standard sorts of individual differences , like gender and education and chronic health conditions , we didn ’ t focus on any other particular traits .
Did anything else surprise you about the study ? Not really . There ’ s quite a bit of research evidence to suggest that maintaining a sense of purpose throughout life is really important . What I think was particularly important from our study was just demonstrating the importance of this meaningful activity in a very old age group : that it ’ s something that stays with us right up until very late in life . So we need to , I think , be thinking of ways that we can help people to have those opportunities to engage in activities that are meaningful to them right throughout the life course .
What can we do to better care for older Aussies , particularly since most of this cohort are likely to be in aged care ? I think it ’ s about looking at opportunities to allow people to express themselves in ways that are consistent with their own interests as much as possible . And to give people those opportunities for independence , where it ’ s safe and sensible to do so .
I think sometimes we can be tempted to care so much for older and vulnerable people that we might undermine their own autonomy . So I think we need to be looking at ways that innovative and smart ways that we can support people ’ s autonomy , even in residential care contexts . ■
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