Spirituality in late adulthood

MacDonald's Expressions of Spirituality Inventory was used to examine spirituality in late adulthood using a sample of 30 people (22 women, 8 men) whose mean age was 72.6 yr. While average scores are higher on scales measuring spiritual and religious beliefs and practices for the sample than for a standardization group of undergraduate students with a mean age of 21.0 yr., means are lower on scales measuring paranormal beliefs. Low scores on death anxiety are correlated only with Existential Well-being and age. And, while some religious behaviors such as frequent religious practice, prayer, and church attendance are correlated with some of the dimensions of spirituality, many of the scores on the Expressions of Spirituality Inventory scales are independent of self-reported religious behaviors.