The Mediating Role of the Use of technology in the Relationship Between Cognitive Flexibility, Social Participation, Purpose in Life, and Successful Aging

Objectives: In recent years, with an increase in the rate of aging around the world, the concept of successful aging and its related factors have been considered. The purpose of the current study is to investigate the mediating role of using technology in cognitive flexibility, social participation and purpose in life in achieving successful aging. Methods and Materials: The research design of this study is descriptive-correlational study. A number of 409 elderly people over 60 years participated by convenience sampling method and based on the inclusion criteria. Data was collected through the Successful Aging Scale (SAS), Cognitive Flexibility Inventory (CFI), the Social Participation Scale, the Purpose in Life Scale, and the Technology Questionnaire. The data was analyzed using a path analysis correlation test using a bootstrapping method using AMOS 26 software. Findings: In this study, 53.5% of the participants were men and 46.5% were women, of whom 44.7% were between 60 and 65 years old and 3.7% were over 81 years old. The results showed that all the indicators of the model are in the optimal range and the model has a good fit with the data. The indicators of CFI=0.96, GFI=0.93, NFI=0.90 and RMSEA=0.075 have been reported. Also, the obtained results showed that all the obtained correlation coefficients were significant at the level of p<0.05 or p<0.01. Therefore, the proposed model showed that cognitive flexibility, social participation and purpose in life had a positive and significant relationship with successful aging through the mediation of technology use (indirectly). Conclusion: This study indicated that the use of technology facilitates the achievement of successful aging. These results can draw the attention of geriatrics specialists and technology experts to the need to improve access to compatible technology for elderly's conditions.