Religiousness, Coping Styles, and Situational Optimism Among Nursing Home Residents

Effect of Chaplaincy Visits in an Elder Care Setting: A Pilot Analysis of Existing Data

Religion is a consistent, positive predictor of health in older adults. Studies focused on religion and spirituality as a coping mechanism find significant positive effects on the lives of older adults. This study investigated how an older person's living situation influences his or her access to spiritual and religious resources and, consequently, his or her health. Utilizing existing data, this pilot project examined the relationship between visits from a chaplain and the mood, pain level, functional ability, and/or discharge status of elders residing in the rehabilitation unit of one long-term care facility. Samples of patients who did and did not have chaplaincy visits were matched based on their level of frailty. Analytic comparisons revealed no significantly different outcomes in terms of mood, pain level, functional ability, or discharge status for patients visited by a chaplain. The outcomes suggest future hypotheses and offer a model for outcomes-based chaplaincy research.

Is death anxiety more closely linked with optimism or pessimism among older adults?

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether death anxiety is more closely linked with optimism or pessimism among older adults. Participants consisted of community-dwelling older adults (N = 253; 73.1% female) in the southern U.S. Both optimism and pessimism demonstrated a bivariate association with death anxiety; however, when considering optimism and pessimism together-and after controlling for age, gender, physical health, and mental health-optimism was not associated with death anxiety, while pessimism was associated with higher death anxiety. Post hoc analyses found a unique relationship between pessimism and greater fear of the unknown. Perhaps, given the inevitability of death, limiting negative expectancies is more salient to death anxiety than having positive expectancies, and pessimism may be particularly associated with existential and religious concerns.