Privatisation of the privatized: forms of co-resonance between old age and spirituality among Czech elders

ABSTRACT

Growing number of studies pointed to the importance of the topic of spirituality and religiosity among older people. However, these studies are conducted in countries with high religiosity. The Czech Republic is one of the most secular regions in the world. These facts led us to question the relationship between old age and spirituality in the environment of the Czech Republic. In thirteen semi-structured interviews with seniors from the Czech Republic (age 65+) we focused on the relationship between spirituality and old age. The qualitative analysis procedures formulated by Miles and Huberman for generating meaning were used for the analysis itself. Findings revealed only a limited association between spirituality and old age. Spirituality was used by the elderly for the purpose of expressing gratitude or as a function, which was a response to the particular topic of the old age as control of skills, maintaining relationship or activity.

KEYWORDS:

• Elderly
• spirituality
• religiosity
• Czech Republic
• qualitative research

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank to all the participants, as well as Michal Opatrný, Věra Suchomelová, and Karel Šimr from the research team.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. For a better understanding of the context of the research in terms of the project, we will only briefly describe the phases. The first phase focused on mapping the current knowledge and reflecting on possible methodological approaches. In the second phase, individual interviews were conducted (related to the constructions of spirituality, old age and their relationship). In the third phase, focus groups were conducted according to a structure based also on the findings presented in this text. Data from the third phase are currently analysed. During the focus groups, we explored slightly different aspects of old age and spirituality than the findings presented in this text. We also focused on the topic of institutional care for older persons. In the fourth phase, lifelong learning courses will be conducted focusing on spirituality sensitive interventions in social work, as well as basic knowledge about the context of spirituality. The last phase will be devoted to reflecting on the parts of the project and formulating options for spiritually sensitive interventions in the context of research findings and international practice.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Technological Agency of the Czech Republic (Technologická agentura České republiky) under Grant [TL03000376].