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Innov Aging
Innov Aging
innovateage
Innovation in Aging
2399-5300 Oxford University Press US 

10.1093/geroni/igaa057.1992
igaa057.1992
Abstracts
Session 5600 (Symposium)
AcademicSubjects/SOC02600
Desire for Spiritual Growth: A Neglected Outcome Variable
Patrick Julie Hicks 1 Ebert Alexandria 1 Carney Amy Knepple 2 1 
West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, United States
2 
University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, United States
2020 
16 12 2020 
16 12 2020 
4 Suppl 1 Program Abstracts from The GSA 2020 Annual Scientific Meeting “Turning 75: Why Age Matters”593 593
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America.2020This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Abstract
Social support facilitates reaching health-related goals, but has rarely been examined in relation to achieving religious/spiritual (R/S) goals. Using data from 300+ adults (M age = 40.3, range 18 to 87 yrs) , we examine the prevalence of R/S goals and the influence of age and social interactions on reaching these goals. Multinomial logistic regressions showed that adults who did not have a goal to be more religious/spiritual reported fewer positive interactions, fewer negative interactions, and were younger than those who continued to work toward their R/S goals. Those who had the intention to become more R/S but were not working toward it were younger than those who persisted. The importance of R/S goals are discussed within the context of other self-improvement goals. Unique aspects of these goals and the ways in which social interactions support achieving these goals are highlighted.