Religious Coping and Working Past Retirement Age: A Review of the Literature

Abstract

This article examines the published literature on religion, age, and health, and how these variables relate to job satisfaction and working into advanced ages. This review summarizes findings from the following databases: EBSCOhost; Web of Science; PubMed; and Google Scholar. Search terms included various forms of "aging/elderly worker or workforce, workplace religiosity, religion/spirituality and health, and religious coping." Ninety-two articles employing a variety of methods were reviewed in detail. If plausible links between religious coping methods and working past age 67 can be posited, then a future study of potential predictive capabilities may be warranted.

Linking Spiritual and Religious Coping With the Quality of Life of Community-Dwelling Older Adults and Nursing Home Residents

“…In this study, Positive SRC was significantly positively associated with physical QOL across both study samples that corroborates others’ findings on physical health and SRC ( Pargament et al, 2011 ; Parker et al, 2003 ; Sturz & Zografos, 2014 ; Vitorino et al, 2015 ). Spirituality and religion have been found to buffer older adults’ health-related stress ( Pargament et al, 2004 ).…”

“…Positive SRC could have done the same for NHRs. Spirituality can reduce the negative effects of frailty, including sensory problems, upon psychological well-being ( Sturz & Zografos, 2014 ).…”

“…Religious and spiritual practices bring a heightened sense of effectiveness, credibility, and dignity in older age ( Pargament et al, 2000 ). Religiosity has improved older people’s decisiveness around seeking out meaningful and satisfying activities ( Low & Molzahn, 2007 ; Sturz & Zografos, 2014 ). Perhaps this is why Positive SRC was most strongly associated with NHRs’ autonomy.…”

Leveraging Spirituality and Religion in European For-profit-organizations: a Systematic Review

“…Modern HRM is a wicked problem, because trying to change a single agent calls for large system initiatives (Waddock et al 2015). Current HRM faces numerous challenges, such as motivating and keeping elderly employees (Kurek and Rachwał 2011, Sturz and Zografos 2014, Vasconcelos 20152018), while making organizations attractive for Generations Y and Z , Brown et al 2012, Baumane-Vītoliņa et al 2017, Chawla et al 2017, supporting female (Bark et al 2014) and LGBTIQ+ journeys (Köllen 2016, Pichler et al 2017, maintaining an appropriate work environment for people with disabilities (Hogan et al 2012, Kulkarni andRodrigues 2014) and addressing employees' struggles with various lifestyle and health issues, such as diabetes (Stynen et al 2015), obesity (Levay 2014), alcohol and substance abuse (Belhassen and Shani 2012) or helping those suffering from violence at home or at the workplace (Alsaker et al 2016).…”