Resilience In Elderly Adulthood

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Faith Lasts a Lifetime
Elderly adulthood is a time period in which older individuals aged sixty-five and older turn to their faith or belief in a higher power to sustain them through difficult and trying circumstances life often delivers: death of loved ones, loss of independence, family members distancing themselves, financial hardships, or coming to terms with the possibility of their own death approaching. During this stage in life, religion plays an important role in helping the elderly adjust and eventually cope to difficult life situations. (Whitborne & Whitborne, 2011, p. 309) Religion seems to provide individuals with determination even when there seems to be no reason to go on, conviction and motivation rather than succumbing
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In this scenario resilience was accomplished by means through faith or religious involvement. Resilience can be explained, “Even when one experiences something awful, they can function physically and psychologically at healthy levels.” (from Halim, 2013) Individuals who show resilience tend to show “Hardiness” by three traits: “Committed to find meaningful purpose in life, belief in one’s agency and control, and belief that one can grow from both positive and negative experiences.” (from Halim, 2013). Rosie showed resilience by learning from both the positive (finding a new friend) and negative experiences (losing relationship with daughter) after the death of her husband. Alicia demonstrated resilience by believing in herself and her abilities to have the will power to leave her comfortable life in California to the unknown yet new and exciting life that awaits her in Texas. Finally Susan demonstrated resilience by creating a ministry to help herself and others find meaning and purpose to life. Not only did this ministry create a safe place for people to share their experiences but also a place for many new friendships to form. In a study conducted by Lydia K Manning, “participants used their spirituality as a method to encourage and sustain resilience in later life” (Manning, 2013) In relation to the study conducted by Manning and the previous interviews I conducted, the …show more content…
Rosie, Alicia, and Susan turned to their faith to overcome the aftermath of the death of a loved one, leaving behind a comfortable life, and starting a new ministry to accomplish resilience thus allowing them to live longer than most individuals in their cohort. However, in the future I would propose a study to find out how individuals with no religious faith or background establish resilience after tragedies they face. I hypothesize that individuals with no such involvement would have difficult times finding meaning or hope after the death of a loved one. I also hypothesize that these individuals would have a very difficult time showing gratefulness, acceptance, or assurance in their selves, which would also lead to higher mortality rates for these individuals. To test this, I would interview oldest-old intervals with no religious involvement and ask them how they usually cope after being faced with difficult

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