Does spirituality facilitate adjustment and resilience among individuals and families after SCI?

Abstract

Higher levels of spirituality were associated with improved quality of life, life satisfaction, mental health, and resilience for individuals affected by spinal cord injury. Health professionals can enhance the role that spirituality plays in spinal rehabilitation by incorporating the spiritual beliefs of individuals and their family members into assessment and intervention. By drawing upon meaning-making tools, such as narrative therapy, incorporating peer support, and assisting clients who report a decline in spirituality, health professionals can provide additional support to individuals and their family members as they adjust to changes after spinal cord injury.

Spirituality and resilience among family caregivers of survivors of stroke: A scoping review

“…Overall, the methodological rigour of the qualitative studies identified in the review reflected many of the same limitations identified by Greenwood and colleagues (2019) in earlier qualitative studies investigating the experience of family caregivers after stroke. The findings with the quantitative studies that (i) there were no significant correlations between spirituality and other study variables (Teel et al, 2001) or (ii) significant findings of univariate association which disappeared once multivariate analyses were conducted (Qiu et al, 2008), was similar to findings for the review of spirituality studies after SCI (Jones et al, 2016). However, the employment of more robust measures of spirituality may help solve this issue.…”

“…In the field of neurologic insult, initial studies that investigated the applicability of this research to the lives of family caregivers (after spinal cord injury (SCI) or traumatic brain injury (TBI)), found that spirituality had a protective (inverse) association to negative affect, depression and burden, and a positive association with positive affect (Jones et al, 2019;Simpson et al, 2020). These results reflect findings from studies among people with SCI or TBI which have found a positive association between spirituality and better life satisfaction, quality of life, and positive mental health (Jones et al, 2016;Jones et al, 2018). Given these results, is there a similar relationship between spirituality and caregiver outcomes after stroke?…”

“…Paid carers were excluded. Health outcomes of interest were drawn from two other scoping reviews conducted within the fields of SCI and TBI (Jones, Simpson, Briggs & Dorsett, 2016;Jones, Pryor & Care-Unger, Simpson, 2018) and included quality of life, life satisfaction, and positive psychological health. Constructs associated with positive emotions, resilience and spirituality included "personal meaning", "purpose in life", and "posttraumatic growth" (Smith, 2012).…”

“…overall state of caregivers) among which spirituality was one of a larger group of variables or factors investigated, then the focus on spirituality was classed as secondary. To encompass the differing study designs, multiple data charting forms were devised, similar to those used by Simpson and Baguley (2012) and Jones, Simpson, Briggs and Dorsett (2016).…”

The role of spirituality in spinal cord injury (SCI) rehabilitation: exploring health professional perspectives

“…Such an experience can raise spiritual or existential questions [1] which may contribute to posttraumatic growth [2], or even posttraumatic struggle or decline [3][4][5]. Spirituality has been closely associated with increased levels of quality of life, life satisfaction and resilience among individuals with SCI [6][7][8][9][10][11], as well as lower levels of depression [12][13][14]. Furthermore, spirituality has often been identified as a key factor in adjustment after SCI [5,15,16].…”