The Effects of Spiritual Maturity on the Physical Aging Process and Choice of End of Life Measures

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Introduction

Spirituality has been viewed by some as a non-measurable aspect of the person, but there has been some investigation into empirical evidence concerning spirituality measures.  Some measures of spiritual maturity have been studied, and the researchers seem to have found that overall spiritual maturity increases with age over the lifespan.  Other aspects of spirituality that have been investigated include religious attribution themes, proximal-distal explanations of causes of events, and the effects of spirituality on mental and physical health, along with the effects of spirituality on coping skills.   With these themes and their findings in mind, valid measures of spiritual maturity are needed for continued research.  Surveys to address the stages of spiritual maturity have been developed, which distinguish between simple acts of religiousness and true spirituality.  These have also attempted to identify specific aspects of spirituality, which may be more objectively measured than the abstract concept of spirituality in general. 

Statement of the Problem

The prior fieldwork and literature reviewed for this research, which seeks to compare spiritual maturity with age, generally supports the hypothesis that overall, spiritual maturity increases with age over the lifespan.  This research also looked at end of life choices to see whether or not the level of spiritual maturity affects people’s choices concerning end of life measures for both themselves and their loved ones.  End of life measures or life sustaining treatment, also known as life support, is any treatment intended to prolong life without curing or reversing the underlying medical condition and includes measures such as mechanical ventilation, artificial nutrition or hydration, antibiotics, and pain management. Artificial liquid nutrition may be fed to patients during hospitalization with a feeding tube, while artificial hydration is the process of giving intravenous fluids, which is used to prevent death from dehydration.

Review of Related Literature

The Fetzer Institute’s National Institute on Aging Working Group (2003) publication Multidimensional Measurement of Religiousness, Spirituality for Use in Health Research examined several key dimensions of religiousness/spirituality as they relate to health outcomes.  The authors state that some studies show that life-changing religious/spiritual experiences are significantly related to self-rated health.  This aspect of religious history seems to be significantly associated with both physical and mental health.  Further research on lifetime experiences of life-changing spiritual events is highly recommended by the authors.  The report breaks down several areas for investigation of spirituality and includes recommended instruments for each, along with a draft of the Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness/Spirituality, which was developed by the group and is based on some of the questions from each area of their investigation.