Influence of Spirituality on Quality of Life among Adults

Abstract

The English word 'spirit' is derived from the Latin word 'spiritus' which means air, life or courage. Referring to this concept it may be said that spirituality is a way to discover the meaning of our life and to live with a faith that provides courage to face adverse circumstances. It is a subjective and elusive phenomenon that enables people to find out the reason of their existence. Many people confuse spirituality with religiosity but spirituality is a broader, overarching domain that may include religiosity, but religiosity is not a necessary element of spirituality (Cooper- Effa, Blount, Kaslow, Rothenberg, & Eckman, 2001 ; Estanek, 2006). Religion refers to the means and methods (i.e., rituals or prescribed behaviors) of the search that receive validation and support from within an identifiable group of people. According to Koenig, McCullough and Larson (2001) is the personal quest for understanding answers to ultimate questions about life, about meaning, and about relationship to the sacred or transcendent, which may (or may not) lead to or arise from the development of religious rituals and the formation of community. It may be said that spirituality is a set of beliefs and practices that can result in a life changing path that makes a person's life meaningful, purposeful. Spirituality has always been viewed as an important factor in realizing an adequate quality of life. Spirituality has been regarded as something that contributes to human flourishing, something that increase the quality of life. For instance Levin(2001) pointed out that spirituality engenders our emotions, thoughts, and beliefs that alleviate distress. Kass (1996) is one of the opinion that tapping one's spiritual core can boast self concept.It is difficult to point out that the term 'quality of life' is used by whom but the term got some references at 9th World Congress of Sociology held at Uppsala in the year 1978 (Szalai,1980;p.7).Quality of Life covers wider aspects of one's life like family, physical health, psychological health, social wellbeing, work etc. Quality of life is the feeling of overall life satisfaction, as determined by the mentally alert individual whose life is being evaluated (Meeberg, 1993, p. 37). The individual's subjective psychological outlook in the presence or absence of physiological and functional burden determines the individual's perceived quality of life (Burckhart & Anderson, 2003; Murdaugh, 1997). Quality of Life refers to a subjective evaluation which is embedded in a cultural, social and environmental context.Purpose of the studyThe present study was designed to assess the spirituality and quality of life of adults.Objectives of the study* To assess the quality of life of high and low spiritual groups;* To determine whether level of spirituality affects Quality of Life.Hypotheses of the study* There exists no significant difference between the quality of life of high and low spiritual groups.* There will be no significant effect of level of spirituality on Quality of Life.MethodParticipantsThe participants of this study was consisted of 60 adults selected from Aligarh city. The adult included the sample were in the age range of 35 to 45 years. The selection of the subjects was based on purposive sampling technique.InstrumentsDaily Spiritual Experiences Scale: It was constructed by Lynn G. Underwood & Jeanne A. Teresi was used. It is consist of 16 items to be rated on 6 point Likert scale ranging from many times a day, to never or almost never. The minimum and maximum scores that can be obtained on item 1 to 14 are 14 and 85 respectively.World Health Organization QOL Instrument: The scale developed by WHOQOL Group was administered. This scale is consists of 26 items that are distributed in four domains like physical, psychological, social relationship and environment. The scoring of domains are scaled in positive direction. …