Investigating Developmental Trend of Spiritual Transcendence from Adolescence to Elderly: A Cross Sectional Study

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the developmental trend of spiritual transcendence from adolescence to elderly in the city of Isfahan (90-91). Therefore 409 participants were selected and divided into 4 age groups: 77 subjects in 14-18 age group, 202 subjects in 19-39 age group, 113 subjects in 40-65 age group, and 23 subjects in 66-88 age group from both genders. The sampling in the adolescent group was done using multi-stage random sampling while in other groups it was based on availability. The participants consisted of 213 females and 196 males. The Assessment of Spirituality and Religious Sentiments Scale (ASPIRES) (Piedmont, 2010) was used to study the development of spiritual transcendence. ASPIRES was analyzed to verify its validity and reliability. The results of variance analysis showed that there was a significant difference in the development of the spirituality transcendence between the different age groups (p<0.05). Paired comparisons also showed a significant difference with regard to age groups (p<0.05). This difference was between the age group(14-18) and age groups (40-65) and (66-88) and also between age group (19-39) and (40-65) and (66-88). The spirituality transcendence development from adolescence to elder ages showed an increasing trend with a maximum at the older ages while the trend of spiritual transcendence development was similar in both males and females.

Keywords

• spirituality transcendence
• development
• adolescence
• elderly