Courage To Care: Reintegration Roadmap: Shared Sense of Purpose

Abstract Despite the growing use of retirement communities and ageing care facilities, little is known about how residing in retirement residences may impact aspects of older adult wellbeing. Living in these communities may hold particular influence on residents’ sense of purpose, if they feel limited in their opportunities for individual action, or could serve to promote purposefulness depending on the social connections available. The current study sought to explore contributing factors as well as barriers to purpose in older adults living in three continuing care retirement communities. Using brief semi-structured interviews, 18 older adults were asked to describe their purpose in life, community-related activities and any perceived challenges limiting their ability to pursue this purpose. Thematic analysis was used to examine themes common across interviews. Interviews presented a mixed picture of the nature of purposefulness in retirement facilities. Residents espoused several benefits of community living such as social and leisure opportunities, while also noting several obstacles to their purpose, including health concerns and the belief that purpose in life was not relevant for older adults. These findings provide insight into how older adults can derive a sense of purpose from activities within their retirement community and how facilities can better tailor programmes to promote purposefulness and support personally valued roles for residents.

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Sense of Purpose in Life Is Associated with Lower Risk of Incident Dementia: A Meta-Analysis

Journal of Alzheimer s Disease ◽

10.3233/jad-210364 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-10

Author(s):

Angelina R. Sutin ◽

Damaris Aschwanden ◽

Martina Luchetti ◽

Yannick Stephan ◽

Antonio Terracciano

Keyword(s):

Lower Risk ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Random Effect ◽

Purpose In Life ◽

Population Based ◽

Primary Data ◽

Or Education ◽

Total N ◽

Sense Of Purpose ◽

Incident Dementia

Background: A sense of purpose in life has been associated with healthier cognitive outcomes across adulthood, including risk of dementia. The robustness and replicability of this association, however, has yet to be evaluated systematically. Objective: To test whether a greater sense of purpose in life is associated with lower risk of dementia in four population-based cohorts and combined with the published literature. Methods: Random-effect meta-analysis of prospective studies (individual participant data and from the published literature identified through a systematic review) that examined sense of purpose and risk of incident dementia. Results: In six samples followed up to 17 years (four primary data and two published; total N = 53,499; n = 5,862 incident dementia), greater sense of purpose in life was associated with lower dementia risk (HR = 0.77, 95%CI = 0.73–0.81, p < 0.001). The association was generally consistent across cohorts (I2 = 47%), remained significant controlling for clinical (e.g., depression) and behavioral (e.g., physical inactivity) risk factors, and was not moderated by age, gender, or education. Conclusion: Sense of purpose is a replicable and robust predictor of lower risk of incident dementia and is a promising target of intervention for cognitive health outcomes.

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Future trajectories of festival research

Tourist Studies ◽

10.1177/1468797621992933 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 146879762199293

Author(s):

Michelle Duffy ◽

Judith Mair

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Daily Life ◽

Theory Development ◽

Departure Point ◽

Future Directions ◽

Tourism Research ◽

Sense Of Purpose ◽

Recent Scholarship ◽

The World

In their editorial for the first issue of Tourist Studies, Adrian Franklin and Mike Crang made us aware that tourism research had shifted to an exploration of the extraordinary everyday where ‘more or less everyone now lives in a world rendered or reconfigured as interesting, entertaining and attractive – for tourists’. From our standpoint 20 years later, we suggest this particular departure point has important insights to offer our understanding of a quintessential tourism event, that of the festival, which now intervenes in daily life in all manner of ways. In this commentary, we present a reflective commentary on recent scholarship that advocates for more rigour in festival studies, with greater theory development and testing within the festival context, and how this work is suggestive of future directions for festival research. We present several areas that are ripe for further research, particularly given the tumultuous nature of the world we are living in, such as the challenges of climate change and how we might socialise in a post-Covid world. Much has changed in the 20 years since the inception of Tourist Studies, but festivals remain resilient – they will re-emerge in future, perhaps not unscathed but with a renewed sense of purpose.

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Self-transcendence, spiritual perspective, and sense of purpose in family caregiving relationships: a mediated model of depression symptoms in Korean older adults

Aging & Mental Health ◽

10.1080/13607863.2014.899968 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 18 (7) ◽

pp. 905-913 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Suk-Sun Kim ◽

R. David Hayward ◽

Pamela G. Reed

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Family Caregiving ◽

Depression Symptoms ◽

Sense Of Purpose ◽

Spiritual Perspective ◽

Self Transcendence

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Psychisch welzijn tijdens werkloosheid: de rol van persoonlijkheid en perceptie van tijdsstructuur

Gedrag & Organisatie ◽

10.5117/2011.024.003.207 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 24 (3) ◽

Author(s):

Hanne Lootens ◽

Greet Van Hoye

Keyword(s):

Big Five ◽

Well Being ◽

Time Structure ◽

Psychological Well Being ◽

Unemployed People ◽

Sense Of Purpose ◽

Use Of Time ◽

Negative Effect ◽

Perception Of Time

Psychological well-being during unemployment: the role of personality and perception of time structure Psychological well-being during unemployment: the role of personality and perception of time structure Gedrag & Organisatie, volume 24, September 2011, nr. 3, pp. 207-232.Unemployed people report lower levels of psychological well-being than employed individuals. However, when unemployed individuals perceive their use of time to be structured and purposive, this negative effect of unemployment on psychological well-being is reduced. This study investigated whether personality – as measured by the Big Five framework – determined the perception of time structure. In a sample of 231 Flemish unemployed people, we found that the more sense of purpose and present orientation individuals showed, the higher their psychological well-being was. Concerning the relation between personality and the perception of time structure, unemployed people with more openness to experience reported less sense of purpose. More conscientious individuals showed more sense of purpose, routine, organization, and present orientation. More neurotic individuals perceived less sense of purpose and present orientation. Finally, more neurotic unemployed individuals with more openness for experience showed lower psychological well-being, due to their lower perception of time structure.

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