Forgiveness and late life functioning: the mediating role of finding ego-integrity.

OBJECTIVES: This study seeks (1) to replicate previous findings on the mediating effect of integrity/despair in the relation between forgiveness and depression in an elderly population and (2) to extend these findings to other aspects of functioning, namely life satisfaction and subjective health. Both aims were studied in a sample of residential elderly. METHODS: Residential elderly (n = 329, M = 87 years) filled out questionnaires on forgivingness, depressive symptoms, life satisfaction, subjective health and the developmental task of integrity/despair. Structural equation modeling was used to test the mediational role of integrity-despair in the relation between forgivingness and the aspects of functioning. Direct and indirect effects are tested. RESULTS: The results confirmed earlier findings stating that forgivingness and depression are negatively associated in residential elderly and that the developmental task of finding integrity and avoiding despair is significant mediator in this relationship. A similar pattern of mediational associations was found for life satisfaction. However, for subjective health only a direct effect between forgiveness and subjective health was found, whereas the developmental task of integrity and despair did not function as an underlying mechanism. DISCUSSION: Framed within a life span perspective, we showed that the developmental task of finding a balance between integrity and despair is an important intrapersonal mechanism through which forgivingness is related with depressed feelings and life satisfaction for residential elderly. A different mechanism might explain the direct effect between forgiveness and subjective health.

Spirituality and Well-Being in Old Age: Exploring the Dimensions of Spirituality in Relation to Late-Life Functioning.

A growing body of research connects spirituality with positive late-life functioning. In this research, spirituality is often approached as a single measure in relation to well-being, neglecting its complex nature. Therefore, this study explores whether different dimensions of spirituality contribute uniquely to psychological well-being in advanced age. Results indicated that well-being was positively predicted by spirituality experienced through connectedness with the transcendent and through connectedness with others. Spirituality experienced through connectedness with nature did not predict well-being. These findings highlight the unique influence of each spirituality dimension on well-being as well as the need for a multidimensional approach.

Meaningful coping with chronic pain: Exploring the interplay between goal violation, meaningful coping strategies and life satisfaction in chronic pain patients.

Trying to cope with chronic pain is a highly demanding and challenging task and pain patients often need to reformulate goals or aspirations due to their pain condition. This goal violation is often related with experienced distress and requires coping processes in order to decrease the distress and stimulate a healthy adaptation. Some scholars, however, argued that in so-called unsolvable or irreparable stressors such as chronic pain, conventional coping strategies like problem-focused coping might not be the most adaptive option. In these situations, meaningful coping strategies attempting to transform the meaning of the stressful experience would be more accurate. In this study, we aim to test if goal violation triggers meaningful coping strategies over time and whether engagement in these meaningful coping strategies result in improved life satisfaction, as an indicator of adaptation. A longitudinal three wave study in a sample of paint patients (n = 125) tests whether goal violation triggers positive reappraisal and downward comparison, two possible meaningful coping strategies. The study furthermore tests if engagement in these strategies results in a better adaptation to the pain condition, reflected in higher life satisfaction. Results partially supported our hypotheses by pointing to the benevolent role of downward comparison on life satisfaction via decreased goal violation of pain patients. Our findings however did also show that positive reappraisal predicted lower life satisfaction via increased levels of appraised goal violation which questions the role of positive reappraisal as a genuine meaningful coping strategy. Implications and limitations are discussed.

Chronic pain care.

Objective Experiencing pain not only affects patients' biopsychosocial functioning but also the existential domain. Attention to the existential, in addition to the biopsychosocial domains, might thus be important in chronic pain care. Therefore, we investigated: (a) how satisfied patients were with the attention of their practitioners to the impact of pain on biological, psychological, social, and existential life domains, and (b) how satisfaction with each domain was related to patient functioning. Method Pain patients ( N = 163) were questioned on their satisfaction with the attention of their practitioners to biological, psychological, social, and existential life domains, and on pain intensity, pain disability, life satisfaction, and depressive symptoms. Results Patients reported low satisfaction with the attention of their practitioners to the social and existential domains. Satisfaction with each domain was negatively related with pain intensity, pain disability, and depressive symptoms and positively related with life satisfaction. Only satisfaction with the existential domain was able to predict all functional outcomes above and beyond all other satisfaction variables modeled simultaneously. Conclusions Patients reported not feeling satisfied with the attention to the social and existential life domains. Furthermore, practitioners' attention to the existential domain seems highly important for patient functioning. Openness to existential concerns of pain patients might thus be an important aspect of chronic pain care.