Spirituality and optimism as buffer of sense of coherence among imminent retirees in Lagos State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined the buffering influence of spirituality and optimism on sense of coherence among imminent retirees in Lagos State, Nigeria. The study adopted a descriptive survey utilizing an expost-facto research design. Six hundred and five imminent retirees constituted the participants for the study. Through the use of probabilistic simple random sampling technique, the participants were selected from various federal governments’ parastatals and core ministries. All the participants were selected in Lagos state. They comprise three hundred and sixty five (365) males and two hundred and forty (240) females. Their age raged between 48 and 65 with an average age of 59.6 years. Hierarchical multiple regression statistic was employed to examine the relationships between the criterion variable and the independent variables. Results revealed that each of the independent variables made significant relative and joint contribution to the prediction of sense of coherence. Also, there were significant correlations between spirituality, dispositional optimism and sense of coherence among the imminent retirees. It is recommended that there is strong need for counselling, clinical and personnel psychologists to take into account the psychological variables used in this study while addressing workers' anxiety relating to their prospective retirement.

Keywords: Spirituality, optimism, sense of coherence, imminent retirees