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KMID : 1023720160710020139
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Journal of Welfare for the Aged
2016 Volume.71 No. 2 p.139 ~ p.164
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A Qualitative study on the Usefulness of Spirituality experienced by Elderly women
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Lee So-Won
Kim Chan-Woo
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Abstract
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This research starts with a question which the previous studies on elder’s spirituality have been based on the boundary of a specific religion excluding non-religious spirituality. The purpose of this paper is to examine the usefulness of elderly women’s spirituality by reflecting post-religious and by mixing various religious viewpoints on spirituality. This research examined the interviews of 15 elderly women who have participated in community welfare agencies by a qualitative analysis. Based on the analysis, the research extracted four main categories on the usefulness of spirituality of elderly woman：existential positioning of ‘mother’ rather than ‘I’, the psychological place for peace and rest, enabling practical decisions regarding their own death, and the awareness and acts upon the contribution for others and the society. First, regarding existential positioning of ‘mother’ rather than ‘me’, their spirituality were regarded as motherhood for their children from a time of bearing a child to the time of their imminent death. In second, regarding the psychological place for peace and rest their spirituality offered the communication of the relationship with other family members, a coping mechanism to several challenges through their whole lives, and motives to keep a consistent relationship with their families-in-law. In third, their spirituality enable them to make practical decisions regarding their own death, uncertainty toward a world of post-death, increased need of death with dignity and reasonable funerals. Lastly, the spirituality of elderly women has been constructed in the each area of well-being and well-dying social work practice. These results suggest that social work practice for elders should be based on the spirituality restructured by integrated viewpoints including family-cultural, whole-life, and family-related approaches beyond a specific religious boundary.
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KEYWORD
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elderly woman, spirituality, motherhood, qualitative research
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