The nature of faith in the lifelong journey: A phenomenological inquiry.

摘要

A growing body of literature suggests that those who maintain a religious belief and strong spiritual support system will generally display a significant appearance of emotional and psychological well-being. These persons believe that having a relationship with a higher power is the ultimate purpose for their daily lives.; The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the impact of possessing a secure spiritual belief system as embraced by older adults residing in a self-assisted living center. This growing group of senior individuals is past the stage of living in their own homes and yet not in need of a skilled-care facility. Many suffer disturbance and frustration due to restricted mobility and activity limitations. They are at risk for developing a sense of hopelessness with life and fighting severe depression.; As these senior residents face life-changing events, faith and spirituality have assisted them in being able to accept and deal with changes within their daily lives and throughout their life journey. The central focus of this study explored and described the relationship between spiritual faith and the ability to cope with life events.; This study provided in-depth information from the perspective of participants in describing their personal faith stories. A qualitative paradigm was used with data collected through semi-structured interviews until thematic saturation was reached. The purposeful sampling technique was employed to identify 14 information-rich subjects who were residents of a self-assisted retirement community. The constant comparative method was utilized in identifying eleven overarching themes and commonalities.; The results indicated the senior citizens living in a self-assisted living center are being "nurtured" in a physical sense. Yet, the "spiritual" nurturing is frequently being neglected. This study has implications for the urgent need of mentoring, fellowship and interaction, from the Christian community. It also challenges contemporary adult educators to incorporate spirituality into their methodologies of teaching.