Teaching spiritual techniques in continuing education programmes to train older adults for community service and volunteer work contributes to self-efficacy and prosocial behaviours: A five-year follow-up study in four South Asian cities
Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online May, 2020
Teaching spiritual techniques in continuing education programmes to train older adults for community service and volunteer work contributes to self-efficacy and prosocial behaviours: A five-year follow-up study in four South Asian cities
This article presents a five-year follow-up waitlist control design study investigating the impact of a spiritual education programme on self-efficacy and prosocial behaviours of South Asian older adults participating in adult and continuing education initiatives of volunteer work and community service. Intervention group older adults (IN2 = 321) reported higher scores on outcome measures as compared to the waitlist control group (CN2 = 303). Post-intervention outcome scores were higher for participants from Mumbai and Kathmandu, women, middle class, Hindus and Buddhists, single, highly educated, in good health, with an innate desire to volunteer, who attended more than 75% of the spiritual education programme lessons and regularly self-practiced. Self-practice was the strongest predictor of post-test outcomes. Structural equation models indicated that spiritual education programme attendance and self-practice mediated the relationship between socio-demographic moderators and outcomes. The spiritual education programme is a useful intervention and can be incorporated in adult and continuing education training programmes with some refinements for specific subgroups.
AlispahicS.Hasanbegovic-AnicE. (2017).
Mindfulness: Age and gender differences on a Bosnian sample. Psychological Thought,
10(1), 155–166.
2.
CapraraG.StecaP.ZelliA.CapannaC. (2005).
A new scale for measuring adults’ prosocialness. European Journal of Psychological Assessment,
21(2), 77–89.
3.
CarmodyJ.BaerR. (2009).
Relationships between mindfulness practice and levels of mindfulness, medical and psychological symptoms and well-being in a mindfulness-based stress reduction program. Journal of Behavioral Medicine,
31(1), 23–33.
4.
ChoiN.ChouR. (2010).
Time and money volunteering among older adults: The relationship between past and current volunteering and correlates of change and stability. Ageing and Society,
30, 559–581.
5.
De DonderL.De WitteN.BuffelT.DuryS.Dominique VertéD. (2012).
Social capital and feelings of unsafety in later life: A study on the influence of social networks, place attachment, and civic participation on perceived safety in Belgium. Research on Aging,
34(4), 425–448.
6.
DovidioJ.PiliavinJ.SchroederD.PennerL. (2006). The social psychology of prosocial behavior.
New York, NY:
Psychology Press.
7.
EngelC. (2011).
Dictator games: A meta study. Experimental Economics,
14, 583–610.
8.
FindsenB.MarkR. (2016).
Older adult education in two universities: A comparison in the New Zealand and Scottish contexts. Journal of Adult and Continuing Education,
22(1), 6–28.
9.
GardT.HölzelB. K.LazarS. W. (2014).
The potential effects of meditation on age-related cognitive decline: A systematic review. Annals of the New York Academy of Science,
1307, 89–103.
10.
GoldingB. (2012).
Researching men’s sheds in community contexts in Australia: What does it suggest about adult education for older men?Journal of Adult and Continuing Education,
14(1), 17–33.
11.
GranoC.LucidiF.ZelliA.ViolaniC. (2008).
Motives and determinants of volunteering in older adults: An integrated model. International Journal of Aging and Human Development,
67, 305–326.
12.
GrazianoW.HabashiM. (2010).
Motivational processes underlying both prejudice and helping. Personality and Social Psychology Review,
14, 313–331.
13.
HallamS.CreechA.VarvarigouM.McQueenH. (2012).
The characteristics of older people who engage in community music making, their reasons for participation and the barriers they face. Journal of Adult and Continuing Education,
18(2), 21–43.
14.
HanA.BrownD. (2019).
Learning experiences of older volunteers in a community-based social program for people with dementia. Journal of Social Service Research. doi: 10.1080/01488376.2018.1542373.
15.
HarrisA.ThoresenC. (2005).
Volunteering is associated with delayed mortality in older people: Analysis of the longitudinal study of aging. Journal of Health Psychology,
10, 739–752.
16.
JinB.KimJ.BaumgartnerL. (2019).
Informal learning of older adults in using mobile devices: A review of the literature. Adult Education Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1177/0741713619834726.
17.
JohnsonK.OkunM.CohenA. (2013).
Intrinsic religiosity and volunteering during emerging adulthood: A comparison of Mormons with Catholics and non-Catholics. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion,
52, 842–851.
18.
KatzD.TonerB. (2013).
A systematic review of gender differences in the effectiveness of mindfulness-based treatments for substance use disorders. Mindfulness,
4, 318–331.
19.
KimJ.KangJ.LeeM.LeeY. (2007).
Volunteering among older people in Korea. Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences,
62B, S69–S73.
20.
KonrathS.Fuhrel-ForbisA.LouA.BrownS. (2012).
Motives for volunteering are associated with mortality risk in older adults. Health Psychology,
31, 87–96.
21.
KrauseN. (2014).
Assessing the roots of volunteer work in middle and late life. Research on Aging,
36, 1–25.
22.
KrauseN.HaywardR. (2012).
Volunteer work in the church among older Mexican Americans. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology,
18(3), 277–284.
23.
LewisT.AielloA.LeurgansS.KellyJ.BarnesL. (2010).
Self-reported experiences of everyday discrimination are associated with elevated C-reactive protein levels in older African-American adults. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity,
24, 438–443.
24.
LuszczynskaA.ScholzU.SchwarzerR. (2005).
The general self-efficacy scale: Multicultural validation studies. Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied,
139(5), 439–457.
25.
MogilnerC.KamvarS.AakerJ. (2011).
The shifting meaning of happiness. Social Psychological & Personality Science,
2(4), 395–340.
26.
MusickM.WilsonJ. (2008). Volunteers: A social profile.
Bloomington:
Indiana University Press.
27.
MerriamS.KeeY. (2014).
Promoting community wellbeing: The case for lifelong learning for older adults. Adult Education Quarterly,
64(2), 128–144.
28.
NilssonM.HagellP.IwarssonS. (2015).
Psychometric properties of the General Self-Efficacy Scale in Parkinson’s disease. Acta Neurologia Scandinavia,
132(2), 89–96.
29.
OkunM.O’RourkeH.KellerB.JohnsonK.EndersC. (2015).
Value-expressive volunteer motivation and volunteering by older adults: Relationships with religiosity and spirituality. The Journal of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences,
70(6), 860–870.
30.
PaltaP.PageG.PiferiR.GillJ.HayatM.ConnollyA.SzantonS. (2012).
Evaluation of a mindfulness-based intervention program to decrease blood pressure in low-income African American older adults. Journal of Urban Health,
89, 308–316.
31.
ParsonsC.CraneC.ParsonsL.FjorbackL.KuykenW. (2017).
Home practice in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and mindfulness-based stress reduction: A systematic review and metaanalysis of participants’ mindfulness practice and its association with outcomes. Behaviour Research and Therapy,
95, 29–41.
32.
PennerL. A.FritzscheB. A.CraigerJ. P.FreifeldT. S. (1995). Measuring the prosocial personality. In ButcherJ. N.SpielbergerC. D. (Eds), Advances in personality assessment (pp. 147–163, Vol.10).
Hillsdale, NJ:
Erlbaum.
33.
PilkingtonP.WindsorT.CrispD. (2012).
Volunteering and subjective well-being in midlife and older adults: The role of supportive social networks. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences,
67, 249–260.
34.
RiegerM.MataR. (2013).
On the generality of age differences in social and nonsocial decision making. Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences,
68, 1–10.
35.
RojianiR.SantoyoJ.RahrigH.RothH.BrittonW. (2017).
Women benefit more than men in response to college-based meditation training. Frontiers in Psychology,
8, 1–11.
36.
RuiterS.De GraafN. D. (2006).
National context, religiosity, and volunteering: Results from 53 countries. American Sociological Review,
71, 191–210.
37.
SaroglouV.Munoz-GarciaA. (2008).
Individual differences in religion and spirituality: An issue of personality traits and/or values. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion,
47, 83–101.
38.
SchwarzerR.JerusalemM. (1995). Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale. In WeinmanJ.WrightS.JohnsonM. (Eds), Measures in health psychology: A user’s portfolio, causal and control beliefs (pp. 35–37).
London, England:
NFER-NELSON.
39.
SonJ.WilsonJ. (2012).
Using normative theory to explain the effect of religion and education on volunteering. Sociological Perspectives,
55, 473–499.
40.
SperdutiM.MakowskiD.BlondéP.PiolinoP. (2017).
Meditation and successful aging: Can meditative practices counteract age-related cognitive decline?Geriatric Psychology and Neuropsychiatry,
15(2), 205–213.
41.
StromR.StromP. (2018).
Education for grandparents in longevity societies. Journal of Adult and Continuing Education,
24(2), 208–228.
42.
SzantonS.WenzelJ.ConnollyA.PiferiR. (2011).
Examining mindfulness-based stress reduction: Perceptions from minority older adults residing in a low-income housing facility. BMC Complementary & Alternative Medicine,
11, 44–48.
43.
TalmageC.LacherR.PstrossM.KnopfR.BurkhartK. (2015).
Captivating lifelong learners in the third age: Lessons learned from a university-based institute. Adult Education Quarterly,
65(3), 232–249.
44.
TobinR.GrazianoW. (2011).
The disappointing gift: Dispositional and situational moderators of emotional expression. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology,
110, 227–240.
45.
Von BonsdorffM.RantanenT. (2011).
Benefits of formal voluntary work among older people. A review. Aging Clinical and Experimental Research,
23, 162–169.
46.
Woods-GiscombéC.BlackA. (2010).
Mind-body interventions to reduce risk for health disparities related to stress and strength among African American women: The potential of mindfulness-based stress reduction, loving-kindness, and the NTU therapeutic framework. Complementary Health Practice Review,
15, 115–131.
47.
YamashitaT.LópezE.SoligoM.KeeneJ. (2017).
Older lifelong learners’ motivations for participating in formal volunteer activities in urban communities. Adult Education Quarterly,
67(2), 118–145.
