Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatry. Jun 19, 2025; 15(6): 106227
Published online Jun 19, 2025. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i6.106227
Future anxiety and belongingness in young and older adults: An empirical study
Elif Sarac, Esra Yıldız
Elif Sarac, General Directorate of Management Services/Private Nursing Care Center for the Elderly, Ministry of National Defense, Ankara 06000, Türkiye
Esra Yıldız, Department of Public Health Nursing, Ataturk University, Erzurum 25000, Türkiye
Author contributions: Sarac E and Yıldız E contributed to the conception, design of the study, data curation, funding acquisition, investigation, methodology, project administration, resources, and software; and both authors drafted the article, revised it critically, and approved the final version to be submitted.
Institutional review board statement: Ethical approval was obtained from the board of Ataturk University (date October 25, 2024, No. 9). This study is reported in compliance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Additionally, permission to use the scales was obtained from Yakın İ and Yıldız MA.
Informed consent statement: Written consent was obtained from the participants in the study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no potential conflicts of interest to disclosure.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: The data that has been used is confidential. Due to the sensitive nature of the questions asked in this research, the participants were assured raw data would remain confidential and would not be shared.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Elif Sarac, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, General Directorate of Management Services/Private Nursing Care Center for the Elderly, Ministry of National Defense, Bilkent, Ankara 06000, Türkiye. saracelf@gmail.com
Received: February 20, 2025
Revised: March 24, 2025
Accepted: April 23, 2025
Published online: June 19, 2025
Processing time: 99 Days and 3.5 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Human beings, by nature, have many expectations that create a feeling of anxiety about the future, but they are endured and long-ranged. They expect to have relationships with others and need to perceive an emotional interest, an interpersonal bond, and sustainment to continue living. Perceiving this link is required for feelings of belongingness, which decreases future anxiety.

AIM

To investigate the future anxiety and belongingness of young and older adults and determine their relationships.

METHODS

The study was conducted with 404 volunteer participants. Data were collected using the demographic characteristics from the “Dark Future Scale” and “General Belongingness Scale”.

RESULTS

The mean age of older adults was 66.76 ± 3.74, while that of younger adults was 36.72 ± 10.12. The average score for “future anxiety” was 18.81 ± 7.59, and for “general belongingness", it was 63.31 ± 1.40. Findings indicated a reverse correlation between future anxiety and belongingness. A significant difference in belonging scores was observed between young and older adults (P = 0.016, which is < 0.05), whereas no significant difference was found regarding future anxiety scores (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSION

Participants had a moderate level of “future anxiety” and higher “belongingness”. Lower belongingness scores correlated with increased future anxiety. Older adults reported a lower sense of belonging than younger individuals.

Keywords: Future anxiety; Belongingness; Older adults; Youngers; Mental well-being

Core Tip: While the feeling of being loved, respected, noticed, and belonging that comes with belonging to a group constitutes an important basis for the psychological health of the individual, the absence of a sense of belonging can increase feelings of rejection, isolation, and alienation, causing anxiety about both the individual's current and future life and thus negatively affecting their mental health. Study findings highlight the ongoing necessity for individuals to foster the development of coping strategies related to future anxiety and cultivate interactive relationships that promote a sense of belonging.