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- Forschung
- Letzte Lebenszeit
- Auseinandersetzung mit der Endlichkeit english
The effects of confronting one’s own finitude on well-being (NRW Graduate School GROW)
Gerontological research on Well-Beeing (GROW II)
Project management: Helena Kukla (NRW Graduate School GROW, University of Cologne), Prof. Dr. Raymond Voltz (Department of Palliative Medicine, University Hospital Cologne), Prof. Dr. Frank Schulz-Nieswandt (Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences, University of Cologne)
Contact: Helena Kukla (NRW Graduate School GROW, University of Cologne)
Duration: 02/2019-06/2022
Funding: The Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia
Project Description
The psychosocial and spiritual care plays an important role in the end-of-life care in order to maintain or increase well-being. Different approaches, such as psycho-social interventions, educational courses or end-of-life conversations, are discussed as possible determinants of subjective well-being. However, the findings remain inconsistent.
Research questions: The overarching question of this dissertation project is: What are the effects of being confronted with one’s own finitude? To answer this question, the project the following research questions of the three sub-projects will be answered:
- What is known about the effects of the confrontation with one’s own finitude in old age and terminally ill people?
- What are the experiences, preferences and wishes concerning the confrontation of one´s own finitude within the end-of-life care?
- Does planning the end-of-life have an impact on the attitudes towards death and dying in very old age?
Methods: To answer the first question, (1) a mixed-method systematic literature review will be carried out, the results will be summarized narratively. This offers a theoretical basis for (2) the semi-structured interviews with people aged 80 and over, people with life-limiting illnesses and young adults. The transcripts will be analyzed thematically. In addition, (3) a statistical based analysis of the representative NRW 80+ data set will be conducted.