Missing Voices and Aging in Prison: Religiosity’s Influence on Positive Aging through Forgiveness

Abstract

Background: This study investigated the influence of positive psychological predictors, religiosity and forgiveness, on subjective and objective successful aging outcomes among incarcerated males. Methods: Male prison inmates (N=261), aged 45 to 82 and incarcerated in eight statemanaged correctional facilities, were sampled from the prison census database (Oklahoma Department of Corrections or DOC). Exclusion criteria, per the Oklahoma DOC, were those housed in medical or psychiatric units, currently in solitary confinement, or sentenced to death row. Results: The final mediation model fit the data well: MLR χ 2 (df = 101, N = 256) = 7.40, p = .014, CFI = .98; RMSEA = .04 and SRMR = .03. With the exception of two direct effects, forgiveness mediated the relationship between religiosity and seven successful aging outcomes. Significant tests of total indirect effects through the three latent variable forgiveness mediators on each outcome were found; no specific indirect effects were significant. Analyses controlled for age, race, education, and crime type.

Ageing: Longevity, Successful and Positive

“…The ability to forgive [67] carries positive benefits in all these areas, for all. Being able to give and receive forgiveness within a religious framework provides a more lasting benefit [68][69][70]. This may be because, faith networks, rather than just spirituality, provide a sense of community, belonging and social interaction, where as a search for spirituality is more of a search for internal calmness, a personal need for connection with either a higher or external power or within oneself [63].…”

Considering the Relevance of Childhood Religious Experiences Through Centenarian Oral Histories

“…Gerontologists have advocated for the greater integration and a reconceptualization of life course perspectives to understand how individuals successfully age and develop (Baker et al, 2015;Stowe & Cooney, 2015). Unfortunately, religiosity has remained a forgotten and missing variable within the scientific inquiry of human aging and development (Bengtson et al, 2013;Crowther et al, 2002;Martinson & Berridge, 2015;Randall & Bishop, 2018). This is primarily due to the elusiveness how to distinctly conceptualize and operationalize this term from spirituality.…”