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Religious life is a call to transcendence. This study examined the relationship between spiritual transcendence and emotional intelligence (EQ) in a sample (N = 377) of older Catholic nuns. The sample was divided into two age groups for comparison: Later adulthood group (age 65-75) and Elder group (> 75 yrs old). A hierarchical multiple regression analysis showed that spiritual transcendence contributed a significant 1.7% to the explained variance in EQ over and above the demographic variables, personality factors, and other selected survey variables. No significant difference was found between the age groups in Spiritual Transcendence scores. This study offers a unique contribution to the growing field of research on the role of transcendence in the lives of older religious professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to examine empirically the contribution of spirituality and attendance at religious services to well-being, over and above demographic and personality factors, in a sample of male sex offenders. The sample consisted of 195 men in outpatient sex offender treatment programs or individual therapy. Consistent with previous research, the religious variables contributed added unique variance to cognitive well-being and positive affect, but not to negative affect. Spirituality predicted to the positive components of well-being, and attendance at religious services predicted independently to cognitive, but not emotional components of well-being. Spirituality was a more powerful predictor than religious practices. The implications of these findings for sex offender treatment and recovery are discussed in the wider context of recent developments in the field of positive psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]