AGING ANXIETY: A STUDY OF FACTOR INFLUENCING ATTITUDES TO AGE AMONG CIVIL SERVANTS IN NIGERIA

The present study aimed to examine religious commitment as a scarcely explored variable that could predict aging attitudes. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey. A total of one hundred and eighty-seven civil servants were randomly selected as the research participants. The respondents completed self-report measures of religious commitment scale and attitude to owns aging scale. A linear regression analysis was performed on the data, and the result revealed a significant association between religious commitment and attitude towards aging. It was indicating that religious commitment predicted attitude towards aging. The research finding, implications, and conclusions are discussed. The purpose of this study was to determine the role of religious commitment in predicting attitudes towards and aging of a sample of civil servants in Nigeria. The present study sought to explore religious commitment as a scarcely researched variable that could predict aging attitudes. It was hypothesized that religious commitment would be a significant predictor of attitude towards aging. While many research studies reviewed found that young people's attitudes towards aging are generally negative (e.g., Khan et al, 2012; Hess, 2006). We suggest that certain people's attitudes towards aging could be more favorable due to the degree of their commitment to religion and adherence to religious practices.


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Aging anxiety is associated with the fears relating to physical losses, including changes in the ability to attend to one's self, decline in health and functional capabilities (Chonody, 2019). Nevertheless, the anxieties associated with physical changes do includes those alterations in physical appearance and sexual outcomes. Psychological anxieties relate to the fears of dependence, personal control, cognitive deterioration, and poor life satisfaction. Worries about social losses focus on relationships, including the number and quality of interactions with others, and fear of failure also incorporates economic issues or lack of employment (Chonody, 2019).
Research in aging (e.g., Chonody and Wang 2014) have found a relationship between belief in negative perception of older people as undeserving and incapacitating and anxiety about aging. For instance, Chonody and Teater (2016) reported that college student's negative beliefs about personal aging predicted the fear of looking old. Consequently, a positive relationship has been established between the anxieties about aging and insufficient knowledge about the aging process (Allan & Johnson 2008), including dissociation with the elderly persons in the society (Chonody et al. 2014). According to Levy (2018), the anxieties associated with aging can be alleviated using constructive enlightening of the aging process and contact experiences with the elderly persons. In Nigeria, civil servants mostly retire around 60 or 65 years or 35 years in active service. Whereas in some sectors, such as academics, retire beyond the age of 60 or 65 years. Civil servants are meant to retire, and the already retired civil servants in Nigeria are not promising. For instance, Tany, André, Mbah, and Tong (2018) (Ojembe, & Ebe, 2014) are among the perceived challenges that characterize retirement among Nigeria civil servants. Approaching retirement has been associated with anxiety and stress due to the perceived retirement doubts (Rotimi, 2005). The problems of retirement among retirees have generated many psychological and emotional feelings due to uncertainty, insecurity, and unpreparedness (Ejeh, Igbokwe & Onoja, 2020). Hence, further supporting the link between negative beliefs and fears about the aging process. , religious commitment refers to the beliefs and practices of a particular religious worldview and community. RC relates to the extent to which individuals comply with their religion's demands and the level of the subjective beliefs in their path. Commitment to religion entails total acceptance and submission to the teachings and requirements of the religion. People committed to religion are expected to live and adhere to religious values, beliefs, and practices, such as perceiving aging as a blessing rather than punishment.
Attitude is a psychological concept denoting positive or negative subjective evaluation of any aspect of the socioworld. Attitudes are among those components of an individual's psychological makeup, making that person behave not passively or neutrally, but selectively and characteristically, especially concerning certain specific stimulus situations. Evidence shows that implicit attitudes maybe even more strongly negative than explicit ones (Hess, 2006). Negative attitudes about aging are pervasive among young adults and are replicated in people's cognitive, affective, and behavioral patterns. Civil servants' negative attitudes towards aging are implicated in behavioral pattern, such as youth ideal and its association with beauty and vitality, social media compulsive behavior, and modifying age status in official records. These attitudes can affect a small number of people involved, but when we look at it on a larger scale, it affects our society. However, a positive attitude toward aging will lead to better adjustment in life. People hold different attitudes towards aging.

Present study
The link between Spirituality, religiosity, and subjective well-being has been debated, and research has implicated religiosity in positive well-being (Kim-Prieto & Miller, 2018) and life satisfaction (Yoon & Lee, 2004). Consequently, it is expected that individuals with a solid tie to religious commitment tend to positively appraise their life's outcome (Ramsay et al., 2019). Religious devotion is seen as an approach to attain purpose in life, mental health, physical well-being, and internal peace, which ultimately leads to happiness in life (Rizvi, Hossain, 2017) 470 The purpose of this study was to determine the role of religious commitment in predicting attitudes towards and aging of a sample of civil servants in Nigeria. The present study sought to explore religious commitment as a scarcely researched variable that could predict aging attitudes. It was hypothesized that religious commitment would be a significant predictor of attitude towards aging. While many research studies reviewed found that young people's attitudes towards aging are generally negative (e.g., Khan et al, 2012;Hess, 2006). We suggest that certain people's attitudes towards aging could be more favorable due to the degree of their commitment to religion and adherence to religious practices.

Method: -
Two hundred and fifty civil servants comprising 112 females and 138males were drawn from the state civil service in the Enugu and Ebonyi states of Nigeria. Participants' age ranged between 35 and 60 years. Data on religious background showed that 233 of the participants were Christians, whereas17 were Muslims. In all, 250 copies of the questionnaires were given to the participants who consented to partake in the study. However, only 187 copies were returned and adequately filled. Thus, they were used for the analysis.

Measures: -
The religious commitment was measured with the 10-item Religious Commitment Inventory (RCI-10) developed by Worthington et al. (2003). The instrument is a unidimensional scale designed to assess one's level of religious commitment. Typical items include: "My religious belief lies behind my whole approach to life" and "I enjoy participating in the activities of my religious affiliation." Participants responded by indicating the extent to which each statement was true of them in a 5-point Likert scale format ranging from "Not at all true of me" (1) to "Totally true of me" (5). Total score (obtained by adding each respondent's score in all the ten items) ranged between 10 and 50, with a higher score suggesting more religious commitment. We obtained an alpha reliability coefficient of .87 in the present study.
Attitude towards aging was measured with the Attitude towards Owns Aging (ATOA) designed to assess people's evaluation of their aging. The scale is scored on a 4-point scale ranging from (1) strongly disagree to (4) strongly agree. In this study, a Cronbach's alpha = 0.78 was obtained. Higher scores indicate a more favorable perception of own aging.

Result: -
Linear regression was conducted to calculate the effect of religious commitment on attitude towards aging. The result showed that religious commitment predicted attitude towards aging at F (1, 185) = 381.386, P<.05), with an R 2 of .673. This indicates that religious commitment as a factor significantly predicted attitude towards aging among the samples, which means that the tension accruing from aging thought can be eased through religious commitment. well-being (Dar, 2019). Supposedly, religious commitment moderates an individual's cognitive, affective, and behavioral tendencies. Therefore, one can say that an individual's perception of own aging could be affected by the level of their commitment to religion, which means that people with a previously negative attitude towards aging could be motivated to change the attitude as their commitment to their faith increases. The probable reason for this change could be attributed to religious teachings relating to acceptance.

The implication of the study
The study's findings further implicated religious commitment as a rarely explored variable that could influence human behavior. The result implies that people who scored high in religious commitment are more efficient in coping with aging thought. Furthermore, it shows that religious commitment could be a veritable tool in managing the stress accompanying the negative opinions of getting older and the associated thoughts of retirement.

Conclusion: -
From this study, it was revealed that civil servants who scored high in religious commitment tend to be comfortable with the feelings of getting older and retiring from service. The study concludes that following the undesirable effects of negative attitudes towards aging, individuals must invest more attention to their respective faith teachings. Although, the study has its flaws. For example, generalization of the findings is a thing of concern regarding the respondents of the survey. However, the research suggests that prospective researchers expand the scope of samples, methodology, and variables.