Educational Level and Financial Status: Decisive Factors for Level of Spirituality and Psychological Well-being among Elderly

Aim: The present study aims to assess the level of spirituality and psychological well being among institutionalized and non-institutionalized elderly across their educational level and financial status.

Sample: For the current study, a total of 200 elderly including institutionalized elderly (n1 =100) and a comparable sample of non-institutionalized elderly (n2 =100) were drawn through census and lottery methods respectively.

Sample Selection: The institutionalized elderly were selected from Society Registration Act (SRA) recognized old age homes of Uttarakhand and non-institutionalized elderly were drawn from the nearby localities adjacent to the old age homes.

Tools: Level of spirituality and psychological wellbeing of the respondents was assessed using Spiritual Belief Scale by Deshmukh and Deshmukh (2012) and Psychological Well Being Scale by Sisodia and Choudhary (2012) respectively.

Results: Analysis of level of spirituality among elderly across educational qualification revealed that spirituality increased significantly with higher education. Graduate elderly were significantly more spiritual than those less educated and post graduates were observed to be even significantly more spiritual than graduates. Same trend was observed on psychological well being component. Graduate elderly were significantly more psychologically well than those less educated and post graduates were observed to be even significantly more psychologically well than graduates. Comparison across financial status revealed that elderly with fixed regular income had higher spirituality and psychological well being as compared to those with no fixed regular income.

Conclusion: Socio-economic factors like educational level and financial status are strong determinants of level of spirituality and psychological well being among elderly. Spirituality and psychological well being both pave way for smooth ageing. They provide support for counterbalancing the inefficiencies caused by ageing.