Spirituality

Spirituality: 'Forgotten Factor' in Successful Aging?

Listen to Dr. Parker's discussion

An article in the journal The Gerontologist bears the title, "Positive Spirituality: The Forgotten Factor." One of the article's authors, Dr. Michael Parker, who works in the areas of gerontology, geriatrics and palliative care with the UAB Center for Aging, explains how the concept came about:

"The Macarthur Foundation, and in particular two researchers, John W. Rowe and Robert L. Kahn, summarized the literature on successful aging by proposing that there are three pillars to successful aging," Parker says. "One is avoiding disease and disability. A second is active engagement in life. And the third is maximizing your cognitive and physical fitness.

"A few years ago, some colleagues and I attempted to summarize the literature about successful aging, and we made the point that there's a spiritual component...a 'fourth pillar', if you will...to successful aging. There are well over a thousand studies now that speak to this connection between aging successfully and spirituality. So when you talk about how an individual might respond to spiritual issues differently in late life, that raises a lot of questions because everyone's spiritual walk is, to a certain degree, very individualistic.

"We use what's called a Life-Course Framework for understanding the role of spirituality in the life of a person. And a lot depends on a host of things, but I believe once one develops a spiritual component to their life, it can be shaped by life events than challenge their thinking and their spirituality and that include their religious thinking...their orthodoxy.

"It's very difficult to talk about older people as a homogenous group. In fact, as people age they become more unique, more different, more heterogeneous. And the same is true in the spiritual realm. Some people become apostate...they give up their faith. For others, their faith deepens and is enriched through challenging life experiences. In general, though, I would say that those people who, in whatever way they do it, maintain an active spiritual life, do in fact have a more successful aging experience.

"As an example of that, one component of successful aging is active engagement in life. And many people who are deeply spiritual or religious persons are motivated out of that spirituality or religiosity to do good works. And so they engage in a variety of things than perhaps people who are not so spiritually inclined would do, and therefore they're more actively engaged in life.

"As people age, their social networks, or what we call a 'convoy of social support systems' that kind of age in time with us, have many of their cohort group die off. But people who are actively engaged in life develop new, younger relationships that make up their social convoy. And as a result of that, they lead a more vibrant, actively engaged life...and end up aging successfully, and being less isolated, less depressed, and healthier."

A downloadable audio file of Dr. Parker's article is also available.