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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Widowhood, religiousness, and self-assessed well-being among older adults | | Author(s) | Lucinda Lee Roff, Daniel Durkin, Fei Sun |
| Journal title | Journal of Religion, Spirituality & Aging, vol 19, no 4, 2007 |
| Publisher | Binghamton, NY, 2007 |
| Pages | pp 43-60 |
| Source | http://www.tandfonline.com |
| Keywords | Widows ; Married persons ; Religion ; Well being ; Social surveys ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | Some gerontologists have suggested that engaging in religious or spiritual activities may mitigate the negative effects of widowhood for older people. This cross-sectional study is a secondary analysis of data collected for the US National Opinion Research Center's 1998 General Social Survey, and examined predictors of self-assessed well-being of widowed and married older people. The aim was to determine whether participation in religious or spiritual activities mediated the relationship between marital status and well-being after controls were instituted. Analyses are based on 150 married and 120 widowed people aged 60+. Widowed elders reported lower levels of well-being than married elders, even after controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, self-perceived health, and measures of religious or spiritual activity. Socio-economic status (SES) and self-perceived health had positive relationships with well-being. Congregations wishing to improve well-being in married and widowed elders should consider focusing on ministries to improve financial well-being and health and advocacy for programmes that benefit low income elders. Church-based programmes targeting widowed older people should focus on positive religious coping and prayer. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-071127210 A |
| Classmark | SP: SLP: TR: D:F:5HH: 3F: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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