Reclaiming hope: Subjective nearness to death as a moderator between posttraumatic stress symptoms and hope among older adults

Abstract

Perceiving one's remaining time until death, can serve as a source of resilience when faced with adversity in the second half of life. The current work is based on a prospective study and examines whether subjective nearness‐to‐death (SNtD) moderates the association between posttraumatic‐stress symptoms (PTSS) and hope among adults in the second half of life. The first wave was conducted after the end of a military conflict in the south of Israel, and included 170 participants (M = 66.61, SD = 9.16; age range 51–91), 115 of whom also participated in Wave 2. Participants filled out self‐reported questionnaires regarding background information, PTSS, SNtD and hope. A moderation effect was found, revealing that high levels of PTSS predicted lower levels of hope among those who felt close to their death, but not among those who felt far from their death. We suggest that one's evaluation of little time remaining to live, especially in old age, may be a significant factor exacerbating the negative consequences of PTSS on hope. The importance of the results to the research field is discussed.