Abstract
Introduction:
Reminiscence-based activities allow older adults to review and reflect on the life. Particularly at end of life, individuals may be considering the life story they will leave for family. Sharing one's sense of purpose as an aspect of that story can offer inspiration or provide a model for younger family members. This study quantitatively delineates how purpose is expressed in life stories and qualitatively elaborates unique idiographic manifestation of purpose.
Method:
Seriously ill older cancer outpatients (N = 203; Mage = 65.80 years) engaged in life story-focused interviews as part of Dignity Therapy, to create a document to be shared with family. Interviews were analyzed using best practices for narrative analysis to identify purpose and then using card-sort methodology to characterize life domains of purpose. Qualitative mini-life stories of purpose were developed to illustrate unique manifestations of purpose.
Results:
A sense of purpose was narrated by 59% of the sample. Other-oriented purpose was more frequent than self-oriented. The most common domains in which purpose was narrated were family, work, moral philosophy, and religion. Mini-life stories (N = 8, age 59–72) of purpose elucidated the variability in how individuals tell stories, living out their purpose given the ecology of their life context.
Discussion:
Purpose involves having an intentional, enthusiastic life direction. Life story-sharing for family may act as a developmental resource: it offers a way for older adults facing end of life to enact generativity, passing on their story of living with purpose to younger generations of family.
1 Introduction
Beginning in midlife and beyond individuals engage in intergenerational memory-sharing within the family, using autobiographical stories to express life lessons and values ; . Particularly as they face end of life, older people may consider the story they want to leave behind for family (). Recognition of life's approaching end () through aging or illness may provide increased impetus for sharing one's story. While this may occur informally, reminiscence-based activities (e.g., ; ) can aid individuals in reviewing () and reflecting on their past to create such stories for family.
While often simply a pleasant activity, sharing one's life story can also be generative. That is, older' persons' life stories convey values that may serve to guide the next generation (). One aspect of that value-sharing is the focus of this study: what it means to live life with purpose (). Sense of purpose () refers to an intentional, enthusiastic pursuit that has guided an individual's life across decades. Considering one's life as having purpose has been related to wellbeing (e.g., ). Note that though they are sometimes conflated in the literature, this definition of sense of purpose, and our operationalization of it in the new codebook developed for the current study, clearly distinguish it from the much more widely studied construct of meaning. The meaning construct focuses on a personally held feeling-state that one's life makes sense or is worthwhile. Alternatively, purpose entails narrating an identifiable pursuit that has directed one's behavior, over a long period of time, with sustained passion for that pursuit.
Seeking for and finding purpose is a lifespan activity. Hearing older persons' stories of purpose can offer inspiration or direction for younger family members (). Individuals in early phases of adulthood often search for purpose, seeking direction regarding how to live the life ahead of them. This may be particularly true in emerging adulthood () but can occur when one faces challenge or transition at any point across adulthood (). Part of the search for direction in life involves considering ways that one might develop or continue to embrace a sense of purpose (). In this way, family stories told by elders can serve as a resource for younger generations (e.g., ; ): older family members' stories of having lived with purpose may help younger generations find and follow their own purpose (; ).
Gerontologists have a long history of studying older adults' reflections on their personal past () including intergenerational transfer through personal stories. The sharing of one's life story in later life is shaped, at least in part, by considerations of how one's own story can contribute to the thriving of younger generations in the family (i.e., generativity; ). Sharing one's sense of purpose through the life story is one way that older adults can engage in “establishing and guiding the next generation” (, p. 267; ). Indeed, older adults' own sense of purpose may have, earlier in life, also been influenced by their elders. Previous research on older adults' narratives regarding purpose in life () suggest they sometimes trace the development of their sense of purpose back to early life influences and role models, including in their own family. Finding one's sense of purpose is a broad, unstructured task that may be partially aided by hearing how others have forged their path. What is important, especially for younger people, is finding a purpose to which they can commit (; ). As such, we believe that taking a life story approach, that uncovers how older adults developed and maintained their sense of purpose, can provide rich information about how older adults pass on ideas about purpose to future family generations.
Though older adulthood is a time of life review, the end of life phase may specifically prompt life reflection. Particularly in the face of serious illness, older adults may choose to talk about their life, sometimes engaging in reappraisal (), to implicitly or explicitly inspire others to live with a sense of purpose. The motivation to be generative in sharing one's sense of purpose (), may be even stronger when one realizes their time may be short (e.g., serious illness). Focusing on one's purpose, and maintaining life engagement through purpose, can promote one's own personal wellbeing in the face of serious illness (). That said, we acknowledge that maintaining purpose in the current day can also be challenging, or impossible, in the face of illness-related limitations (). As such, when facing mortality, the retrospective feeling that one's life has had a sense of purpose may be even more important to life satisfaction (). For example, one study showed individuals who felt their life was being cut short (i.e., non-normatively early) were motivated to narrate directives for family members as part of telling their life story ().
Our research seeks to provide an ecologically-grounded view of how purpose manifests when seriously ill older people tell life stories for family. We focus in this research on expression of a sense of purpose in the life story as one way that older adults provide guidance to younger generations. Our study fills a specific gap in the literature: while purpose has been studied using well-validated scalar measures (e.g., ; ), there is very little narrative psychology research on sense of purpose. This has resulted in a literature focused on how much one endorses having a sense of purpose (i.e., quantitative amount of purpose), with less attention to the individual lived experience of purpose. A clear contribution of the current research is that we focus on narration of older adults' own sense of purpose, lived out in their life and told in their life story. Our focus on individual narratives, as opposed to quantifications of the amount of purpose one endorses having, highlights how purpose can act as a developmental resource for younger generations.
Only a small amount of research has gone beyond assessing extent to which people feel they have a sense of purpose to more deeply understand how it manifests in people's lives. One distinction made in that small literature is delineating how purpose may be either other-oriented or self-oriented (e.g., ; ). Other-oriented purpose is defined in line with the colloquial view that purpose carries a virtuous moral connotation: that it involves engaging in activities that serve others or betters the world (). Broader definitions, however, also include the notion of a self-oriented type of purpose that directs the individual toward self-growth or living their best life. While individuals may find purpose in many ways, having an other-oriented, prosocial purpose is most linked to generativity (e.g., ). A few previous studies have examined the life domains in which purpose commonly occurs (e.g., ). For example, purpose has been seen to manifest in creative, relational, civic, or economic pursuits ().
We build on this small past body of research by introducing a narrative, life story approach. Our approach extends the literature as it allows analysis of types of purpose (i.e., self, other) and also how purpose is ecologically-grounded, in unique ways, in individuals' lives (i.e., ways that purpose manifests in individuals' lives). Though we did not have a priori expectations, we also examine differences in purpose by gender. This seems important given that researchers have argued that narrating a life is an intrinsically gendered activity and the empirical research showing gender differences in autobiographical memory ().
We turn now to an overview of the current study, its goal and specific aims. A variety of reminiscence-based activities (e.g., ) have been used to help individuals reflect on their past and document their life story. One context in which seriously ill older adults tell life stories is Dignity Therapy (), a structured therapeutic intervention guiding individuals to tell their life story and create a “legacy document” for their family. Such life story interviews form the narrative data used in the current research. In particular, data are from a randomized controlled trial () of palliative care cancer outpatients who participated in Dignity Therapy ().
The study goal was to move beyond scalar measurement, to begin to build a narrative understanding of purpose. Our first two aims rely, respectively on narrative analysis of sense of purpose in life story interviews and use of card-sort methodology to a scertain how purpose across various life domains. The main focus is to identify how purpose manifests and in what life domains it appears. We do, however, explore whether differences emerge by gender () or by type of purpose narrated (i.e., self-other; ). We then draw on the narrative analysis and card-sort findings to qualitatively create idiographic mini-life stories of purpose that include those components but in addition contain a life story contextualization taken from the full interview, and verbatim participant quotations.
Aim 1: Quantitatively investigate inclusion of sense of purpose when older persons narrate their life story to be shared with family. Secondarily, explore whether sense of purpose varies by participant gender or type of purpose narrated (i.e., self-oriented, other-oriented).
Aim 2: Identify comparative frequencies of the life domains in which purpose is expressed in older person's life stories created for family. Explore and provide descriptives, as needed, regarding how life domains of purpose manifest by participant gender and type of purpose narrated (i.e., self-oriented, other oriented).
Aim 3: Provide qualitative mini-life stories of purpose that build and further contextualize findings from Aim 1 and 2. These mini-life stories of purpose' serve to demonstrate the variety of ways that purpose is lived out in the life stories older adults tell for family.
2 Materials and methods
2.1 Participants
Participants were 203 seriously ill older cancer outpatients (134 women, 69 men) who ranged in age from 55 to 88 years (M = 65.80 years, SD = 7.45). Participants self-identified their race/ethnicity as 78% White, 12% Black or African American, 8% Hispanic or Latino, 0.5% American Indian or Alaska Native; 0.5% Asian, 0.5% Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, In regard to education, 14% completed high school or less, 36% completed some college, 26% completed college, and 24% completed an advanced degree. The sample was predominantly Christian (70%). Participants also identified as Jewish (5%), Buddhist (1%), Muslim (1%), another religion (8%), not being religious (9%), or declined to identify (6%). Individuals provided written informed consent and received $150 for their participation.
Recruitment occurred at six university medical centers across the United States in 2018. Inclusion eligibility was based on: (a) diagnosed with cancer, (b) receiving outpatient palliative care, (c) 55 years or older, (d) able to speak and read English, and (e) physically able to complete the study as evidenced by a Palliative Performance Score greater than 50 (). In relation to their cancer diagnosis, the majority (54%) had Stage 4 cancer. The most common types of cancer were lung (20%), breast (17%) and prostate (7%), along with a variety of other types.
2.2 Procedure
The Institutional Review Board at each recruitment site approved all original research activities (https://clinicaltrials.gov: NCT03209440) and the University of Florida Institutional Review Board (RB201601190, “Dignity Therapy for Older Cancer Patients: Identifying Mechanisms and Moderators”) approved the secondary data analysis research activities. As part of the original research, participants completed a larger survey that included their cancer stage and demographic information including gender, education level, and religiosity.
Each participant then completed a single, one-on-one Dignity Therapy interview with a trained provider. Dignity Therapy is a brief psychotherapeutic intervention aimed at reducing psychosocial distress in the seriously and terminally ill through completion of a life story interview (). A key aspect of Dignity Therapy is that participants narrate their life story particularly with the intention of creating what is termed a legacy document, that will be given to their chosen family members. That is, participants narrate their life story, selecting the stories they share and the ways that they tell their life, with their family as the intended audience.
Interviews followed an established protocol focused on a set of nine core questions that elicit a life story (). These do not ask explicitly about purpose but cover such areas as life history, significant events, important roles and accomplishments. It also asks about lessons, instructions, guidance that one wants to pass on to family, who will receive the legacy document. The therapy is rooted in a long lifespan developmental tradition of reminiscence and life review interventions (; ; ). Life story interviews were audio recorded and professionally transcribed. They ranged in length from 19 to 94 min (M = 48.70, SD = 13.10). The transcribed life story interviews were then used in reliable narrative analysis to capture the presence of expression of a sense of purpose and whether it was self- or other-oriented. The obtained instances of purpose were subsequently analyzed for the life domain in which they occurred (e.g., family, work) using a closed card-sort methodology. Finally, qualitative mini-life stories of purpose were created to demonstrate the textured ways in which different individuals enact purpose across their lives.
2.3 Sense of purpose: narrative analysis
As described, most past research has used scalar assessment focused on extent of sense of purpose. As such, no standard coding scheme for narrative analysis of purpose existed. We therefore developed a Sense of Purpose Codebook theoretically based on prior literature (e.g., ; ) and while considering features of our life story interview data from Dignity Therapy (). The codebook was structured to adopt best practices for narrative analysis (). The coding manual is available from the authors upon request.
The codebook specifies instructions for coding the presence of purpose. It also gives instructions for coding self- (i.e., in service of self) or other-oriented (i.e., in service of others) purpose (i.e., ; ). Coding also involved creating a summary statement, for each participant who had been coded for purpose, to capture the actual content of that participant's purpose (e.g., starting a neighborhood organization, being a mentor in her profession).
As described in the codebook, sense of purpose entails expressing a clear understanding of one's purpose in statements that show directedness and intentionality (). The codebook was highly structured to ensure clearly capturing only instances of purpose. That is, for purpose to be coded the participant needed to narrate having a (1) directional pursuit, with (2) long-term duration, and (3) enthusiasm toward that pursuit. Directional pursuit was evidenced by a clear statement that their purpose had guided or directed them toward intentional thoughts or actions supporting their purpose. Long-term duration usually constituted years, or decades but participants did not need to explicitly state a timeframe if it was clear that the stated purpose was a long-term commitment. Enthusiasm was established if there was a hopeful expression that what one does today is important and may have an impact later.
When codebook development was complete, we prepared the interview data for coding and engaged in detailed coder training to reach reliability before beginning to code the interviews. In preparation for coding, the interviews were divided into natural idea units (i.e., topical paragraphs; ). The median number of idea units per interview was 22 and ranged from 6 to 43 idea units. Each idea unit was coded with a “1” if sense of purpose was present or a “0” if absent. Sense of purpose was coded as “1,” occurring, only if all three of aspects of directional pursuit, long-term duration, and enthusiasm toward the future were satisfied in the given idea unit of the life story interview. A sum score was created by summing across idea units in each participant's life story interview. In addition, a proportional score was created by dividing the sum of purpose by total idea units per interview to account for variations in length.
In terms of training, two coders were rigorously trained on pilot narratives to achieve strong interrater reliability as measured by Cohen's κ. This statistic accounts for the proportion of agreement between coders that is not due to chance. It is considered the gold standard of reliability indices for life story narrative analysis (; ). Coder reliability for identifying purpose (Cohen's κ = 0.89) and determining whether purpose was self or other oriented (Cohen's κ = 0.85) were both excellent. After coders reached reliability, all life story interviews were double-coded for additional rigor. Any discrepancies between the two trained coders were resolved through discussion. Coder drift was avoided through regular coding team meetings.
2.4 Sense of purpose: identifying life domains
The summary statements generated during the narrative analysis phase described above were then analyzed further. A closed, single-criterion card-sort method was used. This method is generally employed to organize sets of statements into broad categories from a pre-defined, fixed set of category choices (). In the current study, each summary statement regarding purpose was sorted into only one life domain category. This allowed us to reliably organize the set of summary statements generated across all life story interviews into life domains.
The life domain categories pre-defined for the card-sort were determined based on a literature review of past qualitative and quantitative studies of domains in which people show purpose in life (e.g., ; ; ). We further iterated with the life story interview data with the goal of creating a set of inclusive categories. These final six life domain categories were included as the pre-defined categories in the card-sort: work/career, family, moral philosophy, religion/spirituality, community engagement, and hobbies/interests.
The card-sort task was completed by five new research assistants who were not involved in the initial narrative analysis. Card-sort assistants were instructed to allocate each purpose summary statement into one, and only one, of the six life domain categories or into an “other” category. If purpose summaries included more than one life domain category, coders selected the best fitting domain. Demonstrating the comprehensiveness of the categories, only a small subset (2%) of summary statements did not clearly fall into one of the six life domain categories (i.e., was put in the “other” category). For example, the other category included statements such as “living every day by fighting cancer” and “taking on a new family name after removing oneself from a damaging family of origin.” Life domain labeling via the card sort was determined sufficient if at least four of the five coders selected the same life domain for a given instance of purpose. There were thirty instances in which at least four coders did not agree with each other, and these were resolved with discrepancy meetings with the coders and final review by the authors.
2.5 Sense of purpose: creation of mini-life stories
We used qualitative interpretation to create mini-life stories of participants' sense of purpose as exhibited in their Life Story Interview. We designed our mini-life stories of purpose method such that each story would have four elements. This included background life story contextualization gleaned from a detailed read-through of their entire Life Story Interview. To provide further depth, this was combined with results from the narrative analysis that identified participants' sense of purpose and whether it was self- or other-oriented, and the card-sort findings that revealed the life domain in which purpose manifest in that individual's life. Quotes from the Life Story Interview that had been coded for purpose during the narrative analysis stage were included in each mini-life story of purpose to feature the participant's own voice. As per the Sense of Purpose Codebook guidelines, these purpose quotes indicate a clear pursuit toward sense of purpose, a significant duration that the purpose was found (i.e., decades) and enthusiasm toward the pursuit. Finally, each mini-life story of purpose involved the writing of a summary statement to synthesize these sources came together to create a unique story of how this particular individual experienced and narrated purpose in their life story to be shared with family. The mini-life stories of purpose were created through an iterative process between the first author and a trained research assistant highly familiar with the interview narratives and with knowledge of the purpose literature.
3 Results
We employed three complementary methods (i.e., narrative analysis, a closed single-criterion card-sort, and qualitative mini-life stories of purpose) to fully examine how sense of purpose manifests in the life stories that our participants narrated for family. Findings suggest expressing a sense of purpose is relatively common but not essential to all individuals' life stories. When purpose is present its expression varies by type (i.e., self-, other-orientation) and by participant gender (Aim 1). Sense of purpose was narrated across a range of normative and non-normative life domains (Aim 2). Finally, idiographic analysis provided in the mini-life stories of purpose reveals the unique, textured ways in which individuals tell stories of lived purpose to be shared with family (Aim 3).
3.1 Prevalence of purpose in life story interviews
Purpose was relatively common in these older adults' Life Story Interviews to be shared with family. At least one instance of purpose was narrated in 59% (120/203) of participants' interviews. Sum scores of purpose in the total sample ranged from 0 (i.e., no purpose expressed) to 8, M = 1.06; SD = 1.26. On average, participants included purpose in about 5% of their idea units when accounting for proportional expression of purpose. Proportional purpose values ranged from 0% of idea units expressing purpose to 30% of idea units expressing purpose. There was no difference in sum total sense of purpose between men and women, t(201) = 0.17, p = 0.87 nor was there a gender difference in proportion of purpose in the interview t(201) = −0.14, p = 0.89. Further analyses, as they are focused on differences in purpose expressed (i.e., by type, by gender), do not include participants who did not show any purpose in their Life Story Interview. Note that it was relatively uncommon for individuals to narrate more than one or two instances of purpose and that similar results were obtained whether using sum or proportional scores of purpose. As such, we treat all subsequent analyses as representing whether purpose was present or absent in a participant's interview (i.e., as opposed to capturing how frequently purpose appeared in the interview).
Among the 120 participants who did narrate purpose in their interview, most narrated one (n = 65) or two (n = 30) instances. Narrating four or more instances of purpose was rare (n = 9). There were thereby 216 total instances of purpose across all life story interviews. A chi-square goodness-of-fit test indicated that other-oriented purpose (n = 153) was significantly more common than self-oriented purpose (n = 63), χ2(1, N = 216) = 37.50, p < 0.001. However, men included more self-oriented purpose (M = 0.78, SD = 1.05) than women (M = 0.40, SD = 0.57), t(118) = −2.55, p = 0.01. While women descriptively showed more other-oriented purpose (M = 1.40, SD = 1.14) than men (M = 1.02, SD = 0.70), this difference did not reach significance, t(118) = 1.90, p = 0.059 (see Figure 1).
Figure 1
3.2 Life domains of purpose and gender differences
Card-sort methodology was employed to identify the frequency with which individuals narrated sense of purpose across six life domains. The four most frequent domains were family (25%), work/career (25%), moral philosophy (18%) and religious/spiritual life (15%). Community engagement (10%) and hobbies/interests (5%) also occurred but with relatively lower frequencies. The “other” category was infrequent (2%).
In terms of other-oriented vs. self-oriented purpose, family (32%) was the most frequent life domain to show other-oriented purpose and the least frequent was hobbies/interests (1%). The remainder of life domain frequency for other-oriented purpose were: work (26%), moral philosophy (15%), community engagement (14%), and religion (11%). The most frequent life domain in which self-oriented purpose was expressed was work (24%) and the least frequent was community engagement (1%). Other life domains for self-oriented purpose were: religion (24%), moral philosophy (21%), hobbies/interests (13%), and family (11%). Note that if totals do not add to 100% this denotes the presence of the “other” category.
Life domain category frequency was also examined by gender (see Figure 2). Descriptively, the frequencies of life domain categories were relatively similar between men and women as purpose involving work and family were the most frequently described domains regardless of gender (see Figure 2). Chi-square tests of independence indicated that the only life domain category showing a statistically significant gender difference was that of religion/spirituality, χ2 (1, N = 216) = 4.57, p = 0.03. Religion or spirituality was the least frequent life domain for men (4%) whereas it was the third most frequent for women (19%).
Figure 2
3.3 Mini-life stories of purpose
We created mini-life stories of purpose showcasing the variety of ways that purpose manifest in the larger life story interview, grounded in findings from Aims 1 and 2 (see Section 2.5 for full methods details). Each mini-life story of purpose is comprised of four elements: coded orientation and domain of purpose, contextualization of purpose within the larger life story told by the participant, a verbatim quote from the participant, and a summary statement created by the researcher highlighting the participant's unique manifestation of purpose.
These mini stories of purpose demonstrate ways that purpose is lived out in the larger life stories these older adults told for their families. Narrative data were de-identified and names have been changed in presenting these stories.
These first four mini-life stories of purpose exemplify purpose as it manifest in each of the most common life domains expressed across the sample. These include work, family, moral philosophy, and spirituality/religion.
1. “Mark”
Coded purpose:Other-oriented in the domain of Work.
Contextualization: Mark found purpose in his craft of carpentry and mentoring others. Over 40 years, he grew in his role from carpenter to teacher, guiding new carpenters to “do things the right way” and take pride in their work. His passion for high quality work and his joy in mentoring, shine through in his words:
Quote: “Well, I like to teach. The younger ones come in and start workin' with me. I wanna make sure they know how to do things the right way. Then, when I was lookin' back on it and I can see the progress they make learnin' and doin' what they need to do to be a good carpenter.”
Summary: Through decades of his life as a carpenter, Mark showed dedicated motivation to his purpose. It pushed him to intentionally pursue quality in his own work and to continually, enthusiastically, teach new members of the next generation of carpenters.
2. “Naomi”
Coded purpose:Other-Oriented in the domain of Family
Contextualization: Naomi found purpose in setting the goal of understanding her family's past and continually striving to move forward from it. She had witnessed her grandfather's racism and mistreatment of workers at a young age. This contrasted deeply with the values her mother instilled in her. This contrast resulted in a lifelong sense of purpose: she found it essential to acknowledge her family's negative history and forged a commitment to help future generations “do better.”
Quote: “I think that, especially white people, should know about the racist in their past so they're not looking at just the person ahead of them…I've repeated that story many times. As soon as I heard this thing [the Life Story Interview] was gonna be on paper, I thought I wanna make sure they know this, and I want my grandchildren to know it… I just think everybody should know who's in their past and do something about it. “
Summary: Naomi's commitment to understanding her past started early and was still strong decades later at the time of her interview. She told family stories to her family and to others with the intention to instill others with anti-racist values. She persevered in doing this even though it showed her own family history in a poor light. She enthusiastically pursued the goal of forging new values for her family.
3. “Daniel”
Coded purpose: Other-oriented, in the domain of Moral Philosophy.
Contextualization: Daniel lived his life with a consistent intention to treat others as his equals though he was often in positions of power. He headed his family, and for 50 years was a devoted husband, then father and grandfather. In the workplace, he was an administrator, who had up to 50 people reporting to him. Regardless of his status in these domains, Daniel described his efforts to treat everyone he met as his friends, and to create relationships with them. For example, he took pride in remembering details of each individual's life. He explained that in this way the different roles he filled, as a husband, father, grandfather, and boss were “blessings.”
Quote: “Well, to me, I treat everyone the same. In other words, I have this rapport with my kids, …my neighbors, my relatives, co-workers…You're a person, and I look beyond whoever this title that you are and try to see who you are and interact with that instead of whatever status you have risen to.”
Summary: Daniel engaged in pursuit of his purpose across decades of his life through building and maintaining a moral philosophy to treat all as his equal. The quote from his interview shows how he used this philosophy in the many authority roles he filled at different points in life. He shows his enthusiasm in pursuing this moral purpose, carrying it out in relations with all, regardless of status or position.
4. “Rosa”
Coded purpose:Self-oriented in the domain of Religion.
Contextualization: Rosa's upbringing was shaped by independence and spiritual exploration. She moved around several countries and questioned traditional life paths. She redefined her relationship with God through participation in humanistic, self-development initiatives. Later in life, her belief in combining personal agency with her direction from God inspired her to engage in good works while maintaining and growing her faith.
Quote: “I never wanted to be owned or controlled… I felt like I had a direct relationship with the divine and that the nuns just didn't get it. My God would not condemn to hell, forever, a kid just because he never knew about the Catholic religion. I had developed a relationship, when I was 5 years old, with that God… All my life, I played out that relationship and what I knew was true and not what the rest of the world told me.”
Summary: From a young age and across her life, Rosa independently defined and redefined her relationship with God. She wrestled with her own Catholic upbringing and reckoned with it to maintain a strong religious faith and relation to God. Her relationship with the divine was a clear guide in her life, that she intentionally followed. She felt strongly, and enthusiastically, about her faith being her own, and not being owned or controlled by others.
The next four mini-life stories of purpose follow the same format. They exemplify, however, self-oriented and other-oriented purpose expressed in the life stories of women and men.
1. “Maria”
Coded purpose:Self-oriented, in the domain of Moral Philosophy
Contextualization: Maria faced challenges at home as a child and struggled with addiction in her adult life. This required separating her identity from that of her mother, who also struggled with addiction. She realized her purpose: to commit to self-sufficiency including independence from her mother and overcome her addiction. Throughout her life she then prioritized following her own intuition, being strong and independent as a woman and a mother. Her life story shows how this was continuously prioritized as her moral philosophy in living her life.
Quote: “Probably the first thing that comes to mind is my role of being my own person. I look, sound and walk [laughter], do everything very much like my mother and I was very, just very like her in extremely many ways. We were the only alcoholics [in their family]. Separating from her has been one of my hardest jobs and biggest accomplishments. I would say, that I didn't really make, I've made progress along the way. But I made more progress as my children got older and I was able to look more at my own self. Me, as a separate person from my mother, is actually one of my biggest accomplishments.”
Summary: Maria faced personal insecurity due to early life struggles in her life but committed to a purpose of becoming her own person. She did this across a lifetime, describing it as one of her “hardest jobs”. She shows pride in her accomplishments and continuing ability to forge a moral philosophy that serves her in her life.
2. “Leon”
Coded purpose:Self-oriented, in the domain of Hobbies.
Contextualization: Leon grew up outdoors, connecting the quality time he spent there with his relationship with his father. As an adult, Leon continued to prioritize his time in nature, devoting time especially to fishing, finding it deeply fulfilling. He loved nature and outdoor recreation but particularly found his purpose in fishing. From childhood on, he dedicated himself to deepening his understanding of fish and fishing and setting catch records.
Quote: “Just we needed a change, and so I changed my base of operation, and started fishing at [name of bay]. I would concentrate on a single species of fish and learn everything I could learn about and catch more than anybody and try to set new records. I'm not obsessed with it, but it's what keeps me sane. It's what keeps my mind from having all the problems I see other people bound up in.”
Summary: Leon's sense of purpose from his dedication to fishing began in childhood and lasted his whole life. He shows a passionate love of nature and the outdoors, but particularly fishing. He committed to continually honing his knowledge and skills in this hobby that was his passion.
3. “Anne”
Coded purpose:Other-oriented, in the domain of Work.
Contextualization: Anne was a devoted teacher and mentor, finding her greatest fulfillment in guiding young adults in their academic and professional journeys. She taught in her disciplinary speciality across universities, remaining committed to her students even in face of her own life challenges (i.e., moves, divorce, cancer). She built lasting, meaningful connections with her students, valuing those relationships long after their graduation.
Quote: “Then, teacher/mentor is really important to me, guiding young people through college and then sending them off after college was really important to me. I have a lot of young people I am still friends with and connected with through that. I love them all. Every graduation, it felt like I was sending off my own kids into the world so that was important.”
Summary: For the decades of her career, spanning several phases of her life, Anne dedicated herself to the pursuit of mentoring university students. She intentionally guided them to the best of her ability, feeling passion for the role she played in others' lives.
4. “Elio”
Coded purpose:Other-oriented, in the domain of Community Service.
Contextualization: Elio originally obtained his Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) certification at age 16. For those unfamiliar, note that cardiopulmonary resuscitation is an emergency treatment that is performed by one person on another when breathing or heartbeat has stopped (e.g., due to cardiac arrest). For work or personal reasons, any individual in the USA can become trained in CPR and thereby help save lives in an emergency.
In the case of Elio, for over 30 years after, he maintained his certification out of his altruistic motivation to help others in emergency situations. This was not part of his work life but a purpose he chose to provide service to the community. Being able to help others in crisis became his purpose. He describes how this purpose was reinforced by multiple specific instances of meaningfully rescuing others or saving lives. He talks in detail about an example of saving someone's life after a crash.
Quote: “I kept it up [CPR and first aid training] all through the years… The reason I did it is because I saved so many people's lives, and I never took credit…. I did it out of altruism.”
Summary: For over 30 years, Elio lived in clear pursuit of his purpose, saving lives and making the world safer for others through intentionally keeping up his CPR training. He was enthusiastic about his work and ability to help others, describing fulfilling interactions he had with those he saved.
4 Discussion
When telling their life story for family, older adults reappraise and reconstruct their life's experiences (; ). Recognition of one's eventual mortality () through aging or even more so serious illness, may provide increased impetus for sharing one's story. The current research employed a dataset () comprised of seriously ill older cancer outpatients who engaged in life story-focused interviews (i.e., Dignity Therapy; ) to create a permanent document to share with their family after they are gone. Passing on their story of having lived a life with purpose may be one way in which these older adults enact generativity (; ); weaving their lived sense of purpose into their story may provide guidance to the next generation on how to live a life.
have provided a cogent argument that constructs coded from life story narratives (e.g., meaning, communion) can be organized, theoretically and empirically, into one of three main factors. Given the emerging prominence of this model, we wanted to situate purpose within it. Those authors define some constructs as hybrid. We suggest purpose is a hybrid, showing overlap across factors. That is, it involves autobiographical reasoning as the individual links together instances of engaging in purpose-driven behaviors, or purpose being challenged or maintained over long periods of life. Purpose is also, by definition, motivational and often involves positive affect. It also varies in the extent to which it is used to coherently structure one's life story. Our study provides an ecologically-grounded sense of how purpose manifests in older adult's life stories. Providing this textured view of how individuals share their sense of purpose highlights how family memory-sharing can be a developmental resource.
Findings are discussed below, integrating examples from the mini-life stories of purpose.
4.1 Including purpose when telling one's life story
The first study aim was to examine the extent to which these seriously ill older adults include sense of purpose when narrating their life story for family. Almost two-thirds of these older adults, regardless of gender, wove sense of purpose into their interview response. This is notable given that none of the interview core questions (Dignity Therapy; ) ask people directly to talk about purpose. This finding suggests purpose is integral to the way many older adults think about their life story. Note that talking about purpose is, however, not essential. The current research focused specifically on how older adults pass on some of their life passion, their sense of purpose, in telling stories for family. We acknowledge that there are also, however, many other life lessons, not assessed in the current study (e.g., ) that could be passed down to family by those who did not narrate purpose. In terms of application, understanding when and how sense of purpose is expressed in older adults' life stories may strengthen training and implementation of Dignity Therapy (). For example, older adults might be directly prompted in their interview to consider their sense of purpose, probing what they want to pass on to family in the permanent document they are creating.
A subsidiary part of our first aim was to, for those who expressed a sense of purpose, identify any differences in how that varied by type (i.e., self-, other-oriented purpose; ) and gender. Having a purpose is often thought of, colloquially and in some literature, as having a component of selflessness: being a moral virtue that is focused on serving others (). Broader conceptualizations, however, have recognized that individuals might have a self-oriented purpose: one that directs them in a dedicated fashion toward self-growth and understanding or in living a good life. Following that distinction in the literature, we assessed both self- and other-oriented types of purpose. The conventional view of purpose as more other-oriented and potentially altruistic was much more common in this study. As such, many of these seriously ill older individuals, in sharing their life story, are passing on ways to act pro-socially: to benefit others in or outside of the family, or to benefit the wider community (). For example, our mini-life story of purpose for “Anne” shows her other-oriented purpose in her dedicated and caring mentoring of university students across her career life. She stuck to this pursuit with passion even in the face of her own life challenges. That said, those older adults who shared stories expressing self-oriented purpose are also contributing information to family about how to live a life. Their stories of dedicated pursuit of their own self-development can model ways to seek growth and flourishing across a life.
Although the gender of older adults telling their life story was not a major focus of this research, we did conduct analyses to explore any differences. How one's life unfolds in terms of opportunities and significant events, as well as the way it is storied, may be affected by gender roles and identity (; ). Further, gender may affect how stories are transmitted to family members (e.g., ). In present findings, we highlight that men and women were equally likely to express sense of purpose when telling their life story for family and both most frequently grounded their purpose in family and work. Men more frequently, however, expressed a self-oriented purpose than did women. This is consistent with a view of gender as culturally mediating life and, through narration, life stories (). Our finding may reflect gender roles regarding higher emphasis on striving for accomplishment and success for men () in the work context but even in pursuit of hobbies. Our mini-life story of purpose for “Mark” shows how he seriously pursues fishing as a hobby throughout his life, dedicating himself to learning about all species and developing excellence in his sport. While focusing on achievement, he describes this pursuit in a healthy manner as having the wellbeing benefit of “keeping him sane.” Future research might examine how younger individuals respond to older family members' stories when the teller and listener are or are not gender-matched, and in light of changing gender role norms across generations.
4.2 Manifesting purpose across life domains
The second aim was to identify the comparative frequencies with which purpose manifest in particular life domains in the life stories. The most common domains in which purpose was narrated were family, work, moral philosophy and religion. For example, as seen in our mini-life stories of purpose, these older adults facing end of life narrated such purposes as: being an occupational role model (work), understanding the past and forging positive family values (family domain), lifelong striving to treat people equally (moral philosophy), as well as independent religious exploration and deepening faith (religion). The variety of ways in which individuals manifest their purpose was broad and inclusive. We suggest this is a promising, and liberating message for younger family members in terms of their own future life: there are myriad ways to find your purpose and it may manifest across various domains of life in unique ways.
That said, purpose was most often expressed as lived out in normative life domains such as work and family (). Older adults also carved out their sense of purpose, however, in niche ways in life domains such as pursuing hobbies, community engagement or being directed by a sense of moral purpose. As an example from our mini-life stories of purpose, “Daniel” engaged in a clear pursuit of his purpose through building and maintaining a moral philosophy throughout his life. He had multiple roles in which he was an authority figure across his career and in his family. Despite that, he made a point of avoiding structuring relationships based on status. Instead, he took on the purpose of treating young people, neighbors, and coworkers all as his friends, focusing on equality in his relationships.
Clearly these older adults' stories of purpose were narrated across several domains. Note, also though, that within domains there was extensive variability: purpose was lived out and expressed in distinctive and remarkable ways across individuals' stories. Our idiographic approach highlights how individuals' sense of purpose manifests, given their own specific background and life experience that results in an ecologically-grounded sense of purpose. For families reading these life stories, this grounded view of their older family member's purpose may be a potent way to inform their own life direction, knowing that there are many roads to a purposeful life.
4.3 Limitations
One limitation of this study is that the dataset does not include who the family members were (e.g., partner, adult child, grandchild) that received the Life Story Interview documents created by each participant.. In relation, we also do not have reactions from family members after reading their older relative's life story. We realize that having such data would have made the study richer. Our research used a secondary dataset involving a hard-to-recruit population (i.e., older adult palliative care outpatients) in which family context was not the research focus, so such data was not collected. We believe that our research, for now concentrated on the stories seriously ill older adults tell for their family, is still valuable.
Another limitation is that the sample was primarily White and well-educated. Older adults who identify as racial and ethnic minority older adults may experience higher lifetime stressors (). Facing chronic stress or challenging life events could, in turn, shape the particular focus of a life's purpose, act as a catalyst for embracing purpose, or potentially diminish an individual's ability to pursue purpose. Future research should examine sense of purpose in life stories of a broader group of older adults to further specify the ways in which purpose manifests when sharing with family.
5 Conclusion
Our research highlights how older adults have developed and lived out their own highly-individualized sense of purpose. Individuals vary in the type of purpose they pursue, in which life domain they focus their efforts, and how that plays out in their unique life across decades. Telling life stories can be generative, providing guidance for family in creating their own purposeful way of being in the world. Understanding that having a sense of purpose is not monolithic but is lived out in myriad forms may inspire younger family members to embrace their own purpose: one that fits them given the ecology of their own life circumstance. Most reminiscing with or for family occurs informally across the lifespan (). Particularly for older adults facing the end of life, however, it may be important to create a permanent record of their life story. This allows their sense of purpose to be passed down not only to their adult children and grandchildren but, potentially, to those yet unborn in their family line, inspiring generations to come.
Statements
Data availability statement
The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.
Ethics statement
The studies involving humans were approved by the Institutional Review Board at each recruitment site approved the study (https://clinicaltrials.gov: NCT03209440). The University of Florida Institutional Review Board (RB201601190, “Dignity Therapy for Older Cancer Patients: Identifying Mechanisms and Moderators”) approved all research activities. The studies were conducted in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. The participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.
Author contributions
SB: Methodology, Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Project administration, Visualization, Writing – review & editing, Writing – original draft, Formal analysis. MK: Writing – review & editing, Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Writing – original draft, Data curation, Visualization, Methodology.
Funding
The author(s) declared that financial support was received for this work and/or its publication. Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health under award number R01CA200867 and R01CA253330. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to the undergraduate research assistants in the Life Story Lab who supported this work through careful attention to narrative coding and card-sort procedures. In particular, we thank Gaya Prabhakaran for her extensive work helping to curate the mini-life stories of purpose and Alyssa Crowe for her work on the codebook development and narrative analysis of purpose.
Conflict of interest
The author(s) declared that this work was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Generative AI statement
The author(s) declared that Generative AI was not used in the creation of this manuscript.
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Summary
Keywords
family, intergenerational, life story, mortality, purpose, reminiscence
Citation
Bluck S and Koch MK (2026) A life worth living: passing on stories of sense of purpose to family. Front. Dev. Psychol. 4:1847686. doi: 10.3389/fdpys.2026.1847686
Received
04 April 2026
Revised
04 June 2026
Accepted
10 June 2026
Published
26 June 2026
Volume
4 - 2026
Edited by
Dorthe Kirkegaard Thomsen, Aarhus University, Denmark
Reviewed by
Christin Camia, Zayed University, United Arab Emirates
Cade Mansfield, Franklin & Marshall College, United States
Updates
Copyright
© 2026 Bluck and Koch.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Susan Bluck, bluck@ufl.edu
Disclaimer
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.