Research That Matters (January 17 - 20, 2008)

Purpose: Over the past decades, religion has become a topic of great interest to researchers in medicine, nursing, gerontology, and health/mental health disciplines. Especially significant has been an increase in empirical research linking religiosity/spirituality to physical health, emotional and psychological well-being among older adults. However as religion and spirituality have been neglected as a variable in immigration studies, little attention has been paid to study on impact of religiousness and spirituality on general well-being among Korean elderly immigrants. In this study, the researchers examine the relationship of religiousness/spirituality and social support to general well-being among them.

Methods: A convenience sample of 177 Korean elderly immigrants was obtained at adult day health care centers in California in 2006. All survey questionnaires were translated English into Korean, and all interviews were implemented by the interviewer who could speak Korean language. The mean age of the respondents was 76 years old with a range from 65 to 91 years. With respect to number of years living in the United States, the mean was 19 with a range from 1 to 45 years. To measure various domains of religiousness/spirituality, the Brief Multidimensional Measures of Religiousness/Spirituality (Fetzer/NIA, 1999) was used. For this study, four sub scales were selected that are relevant to the study including values/beliefs, private religious practice, religious/spiritual coping, and religious support. The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support was used to measure perceived social support (Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet, & Farley, 1988). The General Well-Being Schedule was used to measure general well-being (Dupuy, 1984) and consisted of six sub scales including anxiety, depression, positive well-being, self-control, vitality, and general health.

Results: Regression analyses of the study found that Korean elderly immigrants reporting higher levels of positive well-being were more likely to use more religious/spiritual coping skills (Beta = .24, p < .01), receive greater religious support (Beta = .23, p < .01), and social support (Beta = .34, p < .001). Participants reporting better general health status were more likely to receive greater religious support (Beta = .18, p < .05) and social support (Beta = .20, p < .05). In the equation to predict vitality, social support (Beta = .31, p < .001) and religious support (Beta = .18, p < .05) appeared to contribute significantly. Respondents reporting lower levels of anxiety were more likely to receive greater religious support (Beta = -.18, p < .05), and social support (Beta = -.26, p < .01).

Implications for practice: The results of this study can help service providers to understand and evaluate the impact of religiousness and spirituality in Korean elderly immigrants in order to improve quality of life. The unique needs of minority elderly should be considered in service provision. Culturally-sensitive outreach approaches should take into account the importance of faith and faith-based communities for Non-White elderly, especially Korean elderly immigrants. Health/mental health professionals need to be encouraged to collaborate with their faith-based communities in order to provide elderly individuals with interventions that integrate spirituality into educational and clinical modalities.