Exploring relations among religiousness, meaning, and adjustment to lifetime and current stressful encounters in later life

Abstract

This study examines how religiousness is related to the appraised meaning of stressful encounters and whether meaning appraisals are related to adjustment. Participants were 83 older adults (61 women, 22 men; mean age 77.9 years) who reported on their current most stressful experience and their most stressful life experience, their appraisal of these events, and their personal and public religiousness, and religious coping style. One month later, 69 participants reported on their adjustment (depressive symptoms, subjective health, stress-related growth from a current stressor, and from their most stressful life experience). Religiousness was associated with appraised meanings of stressors (e.g., to higher appraised challenge and making of meaning) and with subsequent adjustment. Further, appraised meanings were related to some aspects of positive as well as negative adjustment to both current stressors and most stressful life experiences, but little support was found for the notion that appraised meanings mediate the religiousness–adjustment link.

Keywords:

• Stress
• meaning
• coping
• adjustment
• religion
• aging