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Spirituality and resilience in adulthood and old age: a revision

Abstract

This article discusses the spirituality as promoting factor of resilience in two moments of the life cycle: adulthood and old age. Presently, psychological research has been placing high importance on the spirituality, especially in regard to the understanding of how beliefs affect the level of health. Resilience is strongly related to the fact that the individual is actively aging, despite the losses associated with this period of development. And resilience allows, through adaptations, that the person maintains his quality of life, his physical, cognitive and social health. Thus, spirituality can be considered a resource for well-being in old age, participation in motivating environments and the presence of growth opportunities, in harmony with spiritual-religious factors, have been fundamental at this stage of the life cycle. A review of the literature demonstrates that religiosity and spirituality could be associated with more resilience specially in old age. However, the research did not enable the discussion of the developmental dimension of spirituality and religiosity as promoters of resilience in adulthood and old age.

Keywords:
resilience; religiosity; spirituality; ageing

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