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Adventure And Spiritual Restoration: Older Adult Motivations For Undertaking A Pilgrimage On El Camino De Santiago, Holly Nelson-Becker, Joseph G. Pickard, Florian Sichling

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

A pilgrimage is an intentional journey undertaken for reasons that can increase a sense of well-being. Although originally completed for religious purposes, motives in contemporary times may include anticipated religious, spiritual, and humanistic benefits as well as appreciation of culture and geography. This quantitative and qualitative survey research explored the motivations of a sample subset age 65 and over from a larger study who completed one of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela routes in Spain. Consistent with life course and developmental theory, some respondents walked at life decision points. The analyzed sample was 111 people, nearly 60% of whom …