Bem-estar e espiritualidade em adultos seniores / Well-being and spirituality in senior adults

ABSTRACT

Background: Spirituality contributes to individual well-being as a dynamic process and a personal experience that gives meaning to the human existence. Objective: To characterize spiritual well-being in senior adults and analyse the relationship between spirituality and subjective well-being. Materials and Methods: Descriptive, cross-sectional and correlational study. The participants are mostly female (66.7%), widowed (47.1%) and live alone (40.2%). They are on average 77.3 years old (SD = 7.7) and most have completed primary school (60.8%). Only 11.8% report not having religious beliefs. For data collection the following instruments were used: a Sociodemographic Questionnaire, the Spiritual Well-Being Scale (SWBS) and the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS). Results: There were statistically significant positive correlations between SWBS and Life Satisfaction (r = 0.380; p <0.01), between existential well-being (EWB) and Life Satisfaction (r = 0.515; p <0, 01) and religious well-being (RWB) and Life Satisfaction (r=0,253; p<0,01). On the SWBS scale and on the RWB and EWB subscales between the group of professing religion and non-professing group, statistically significant differences were found. (p<0,05). People who follow a religion, compared to those who do not follow, have better religious well-being, existential, and spiritual well-being. Conclusions: The results confirm that spirituality is related to subjective well-being in the senior adult. Understanding the role of religion and spirituality in this population well-being is critical to better care for and work with these people, and prepare them in advance to meet the challenges of ageing

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