Search results for ‘Subject term:"older people"’ Sort:
Results 1 - 2 of 2
Religion and spirituality: a qualitative study of older adults
- Authors:
- SHAW Rhonda, GULLIFER Judith, WOOD Katie
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing International, 41(3), 2016, pp.311-330.
- Publisher:
- Springer
- Place of publication:
- New York
Theories of ageing have suggested that many older adults adopt different strategies to enhance the experience of ageing. The current study was designed to explore the perceived role of religion and spirituality as a person ages. Eight older adults, four men and four women, aged from 67 to 80 years, participated in semi-structured interviews. The results from a thematic analysis revealed three manifest themes (defining religion and spirituality, the spiritual journey and being older but not feeling older) and one latent theme (faith). Religion and spirituality can play an important role in guiding the lives of older adults as well as helping them establish meaning in their lives and to cope with adverse situations. The results show that the participants see older adulthood as a period of spiritual growth and development which provides a means of compensating for losses that can result from physical decline. (Publisher abstract)
‘At home it's just so much easier to be yourself’: older adults' perceptions of ageing in place
- Authors:
- STONES Damien, GULLIFER Judith
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing and Society, 36(3), 2016, pp.449-481.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
By 2050, the number of people in Australia aged over 85 is expected to quadruple. Yet, from a socio-psychological research perspective, little is known about the experiences of people who continue to live at home during late old age (85 years and over), a period when challenging problems associated with ageing escalate and threaten to compromise independence. Utilising a qualitative methodology, the subjective lived experience of 23 very old adults (19 women, four men, with a mean age of 90.7 years, range 85–101 years) who live independently in rural Australia were elicited. The aims of the research were to understand their thoughts and feelings about ageing in place at home, and what psychological, social and practical adaptive strategies they employ to cope with difficulties encountered during very old age. In-depth interviews were analysed in an interpretive phenomenological tradition of thematic analysis, interpretation of paradigm cases and interpretation of exemplars. Participants described how historical, cultural and environmental contexts shaped their everyday thoughts, activities and what was meaningful for them. The findings add to our understanding of the largely unnarrated lives of the very old, suggest a need for person-centred home-care assessment processes and aid significant others (family, friends and neighbours) to understand better what very old adults need to live independently. (Publisher abstract)