Five dimensions of faith and spiritually of older African American women transitioning out of homelessness.
BACKGROUND
Homelessness among older African American women is emerging as a serious social problem. The increasing cost of living, diminishing community resources, and shrinking retirement benefits, as well as reduced social services are resulting in greater numbers of older minority women becoming homeless.


OBJECTIVE
This investigation explores the relevance of faith and spirituality to an advocacy assessment designed to help participants resolve issues that operate as barriers to their leaving and staying out of homelessness.


METHODS
A substudy of a larger research and development project was undertaken, in which qualitative interview methods were used to illuminate the role of faith and spirituality resources in the lives of 84 older homeless African American women. Comparative thematic analysis of illustrative cases was undertaken to better understand the role of faith and spirituality in the women's lives and in how they used faith and spirituality in coping with homelessness.


RESULTS
Five dimensions of faith and spirituality, (a) identity and beliefs; (b) affiliation and membership; (c) involvement; (d) practices; and (e) benefits, served as promising resources in understanding life spaces of homeless minority women and identified promising advocacy strategies. Two cases describe the realities of homelessness for older minority women endeavoring to transition out of homelessness and illustrate how faith and spirituality can buffer stress, facilitate coping, and sustain motivation.


CONCLUSIONS
How older homeless African American women use their faith and spiritual resources to cope with demands of homelessness, challenges of transition, and recovery from the multiple traumas resulting from being homeless makes the assessment of faith and spirituality an important part of the advocacy process.
Washington
Olivia G M
OG
Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA.
Moxley
David P
DP
Garriott
Lois
L
Weinberger
Jennifer P
JP
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology*; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology*; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006703:Ill-Housed Persons / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D033262:Narration; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D055500:Resilience, Psychological; D020377:Self Efficacy; D012933:Social Identification; D029181:Spirituality