This study was enforced to investigate and analyze the life satisfaction of people attending the school for the elderly which was established and is being operated to satisfy the desire for education and support a positive, valuable life after retirement of the aged, who lost social status and roles in society in order to present measurements for activating the school for the elderly. The subjects were 250 people of the school for the elderly in the Hamyang, Geochang, Sancheong region of Gyeongnam. The relationship between their general characteristics and life satisfaction, factors that influence improvement of life satisfaction and others were investigated and analyzed with the SPSS 13.0 program. The following results were deduced. First, as the general characteristics of the subjects, elderly females were sufficiently higher than elderly males. Their age ranged from 71 to 75 years, academic background was elementary school graduation, religion was Buddhism, a married couple was the most common residence form, distribution of the healthy and unhealthy was similar, job before retirement was farming, economic standard was moderate-just enough to live on- and the monthly personal expense was less than 100 thousand won. There was a statistically meaningful difference between these general characteristics and life satisfaction. Life satisfaction was higher in those with lower education standard, a religious life, who worked in the service industry before retirement, and those who spent over 300 thousand won a month as personal expenses. As for other factors influencing the improvement of life satisfaction, elderly people who had a place to go and those who participated in Bible studies had a higher value. Plans such as diversification of programs at the school for the elderly, running the school everyday, financial support and supervision of the government, unifying names of the education institute for the aged and the ministry and office concerned were proposed to activate the school and improve life satisfaction based on these results.
Key words: School for the elderly, life satisfaction