Meaning in Life, Death Anxiety, and Spirituality in the Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Community: A Scoping Review

The changes in people’s way of life through the years raise questions on how they address existential needs and concerns, particularly those related to life and death and spiritual connections. Through a scoping review, we surveyed studies on meaning in life, death anxiety, and spirituality within t...

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Autores principales: Ledesma, Gian Carlo M., Reyes, Marc Eric S., Delariarte, Clarissa F.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer US 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9645752/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36405399
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12119-022-10032-4
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author Ledesma, Gian Carlo M.
Reyes, Marc Eric S.
Delariarte, Clarissa F.
author_facet Ledesma, Gian Carlo M.
Reyes, Marc Eric S.
Delariarte, Clarissa F.
author_sort Ledesma, Gian Carlo M.
collection PubMed
description The changes in people’s way of life through the years raise questions on how they address existential needs and concerns, particularly those related to life and death and spiritual connections. Through a scoping review, we surveyed studies on meaning in life, death anxiety, and spirituality within the lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) community. We determined the extent to which these variables have been studied among LGB participants. A total of 28 eligible articles were reviewed. Six studies were found about meaning in life, five studies about death anxiety, and 16 studies about spirituality. Results suggest that meaning in life was derived from experiences related to parenthood, couplehood, and work satisfaction. Studies on death anxiety among LGB participants, which date back to the 1980 and 1990s, indicated the need to conduct present studies in this area. The review showed that LGB members distinguished between spirituality and religion, giving them more positive recognition of the former than the latter. The forms of spiritual expression were anchored to religious practices, for some, and other expressions of belief and faith outside the confines of formally established religions. Spiritual expressions generally accorded the LGB members direction and satisfaction in life. Not all segments of the LGB community were represented in the studies. The available studies, dominantly quantitative, centered only on the LGB experience. Target age groups varied across the studies. The review indicates that future studies can work on exploring these existential factors considering the emerging contexts and paradigms. Future research can focus on determining what factors contribute to meaning in life, given the changes in time.
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spelling pubmed-96457522022-11-14 Meaning in Life, Death Anxiety, and Spirituality in the Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Community: A Scoping Review Ledesma, Gian Carlo M. Reyes, Marc Eric S. Delariarte, Clarissa F. Sex Cult Original Article The changes in people’s way of life through the years raise questions on how they address existential needs and concerns, particularly those related to life and death and spiritual connections. Through a scoping review, we surveyed studies on meaning in life, death anxiety, and spirituality within the lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) community. We determined the extent to which these variables have been studied among LGB participants. A total of 28 eligible articles were reviewed. Six studies were found about meaning in life, five studies about death anxiety, and 16 studies about spirituality. Results suggest that meaning in life was derived from experiences related to parenthood, couplehood, and work satisfaction. Studies on death anxiety among LGB participants, which date back to the 1980 and 1990s, indicated the need to conduct present studies in this area. The review showed that LGB members distinguished between spirituality and religion, giving them more positive recognition of the former than the latter. The forms of spiritual expression were anchored to religious practices, for some, and other expressions of belief and faith outside the confines of formally established religions. Spiritual expressions generally accorded the LGB members direction and satisfaction in life. Not all segments of the LGB community were represented in the studies. The available studies, dominantly quantitative, centered only on the LGB experience. Target age groups varied across the studies. The review indicates that future studies can work on exploring these existential factors considering the emerging contexts and paradigms. Future research can focus on determining what factors contribute to meaning in life, given the changes in time. Springer US 2022-11-09 2023 /pmc/articles/PMC9645752/ /pubmed/36405399 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12119-022-10032-4 Text en © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2022, Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law. This article is made available via the PMC Open Access Subset for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic.
spellingShingle Original Article
Ledesma, Gian Carlo M.
Reyes, Marc Eric S.
Delariarte, Clarissa F.
Meaning in Life, Death Anxiety, and Spirituality in the Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Community: A Scoping Review
title Meaning in Life, Death Anxiety, and Spirituality in the Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Community: A Scoping Review
title_full Meaning in Life, Death Anxiety, and Spirituality in the Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Community: A Scoping Review
title_fullStr Meaning in Life, Death Anxiety, and Spirituality in the Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Community: A Scoping Review
title_full_unstemmed Meaning in Life, Death Anxiety, and Spirituality in the Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Community: A Scoping Review
title_short Meaning in Life, Death Anxiety, and Spirituality in the Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Community: A Scoping Review
title_sort meaning in life, death anxiety, and spirituality in the lesbian, gay, and bisexual community: a scoping review
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9645752/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36405399
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12119-022-10032-4
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