Religious Resources,Spiritual Struggles,and Mental Health in a Nationwide Sample of PCUSA Clergy

A growing body of research explores patterns and correlates of mental health among clergy and other religious professionals. Our study augments this work by distinguishing between religious resources (i.e., support from church members, positive religious coping practices), and spiritual struggles (i.e., troubled relations with God, negative interactions with members, chronic religious doubts). We also explore several conceptual models of the interplay between these positive and negative religious domains and stressful life events. After reviewing theory and research on religious resources, spiritual struggles, and mental health, we test relevant hypotheses using data on a nationwide sample of ordained clergy members in the Presbyterian Church (USA). At least some support is found for all main effects hypotheses. Religious resources predict well-being more strongly, while spiritual struggles are more closely linked with psychological distress. There is some evidence that stressful life events erode mental health by fostering an elevated sense of spiritual disarray and struggle. We find limited support for the stress-buffering role of religious resources, and limited evidence for a stress-exacerbating effect of spiritual struggle. Study limitations are identified, along with a number of implications and promising directions for future research.     

Integrating Religious Resources Within a General Model of Stress and Coping: Long-Term Adjustment to Breast Cancer

The purpose of the present cross-sectional study was to explore the role of religious resources in long-term adjustment to breast cancer. A sample of fifty-two survivors was assessed on indices of religious resources (e.g., image of God), nonreligious resources (e.g., cognitive appraisal) and emotional and spiritual well-being. Results indicated that both relationship with God/God image and religious coping behaviour were related to the nonreligious mediator variables of cognitive appraisal and coping in response to the current cancer situation. Various experiences of relationship with God (e.g., Presence) were related to more positive appraisals of the current cancer situation as well as to the greater use of the nonreligious coping behaviour of focusing on the positive. In contrast, religious coping behaviours demonstrated more complex associations with cognitive appraisal and nonreligious coping factors. The same coping behaviour, for example religious avoidance, could be related to both positive and negative appraisals of the cancer situation. Finally, religious resources, but not nonreligious resources predicted emotional and spiritual well-being for these long-term breast cancer survivors.     

The role of attachment to God in secular and religious/spiritual ways of coping with a serious disease

This study investigated the role of security in one's attachment to God in relation to both secular and religious/spiritual ways of coping with a serious illness. The main objective was to test whether attachment to God and type of disease were related to secular coping strategies, when controlling for the effects of religious/spiritual coping. Study participants (N = 105) had been diagnosed either with cancer (i.e., an acute disease) and were under chemotherapy/awaiting surgery or with renal impairment (i.e., a chronic disease) and were attending dialysis. Results showed that secure attachment to God was uniquely related to fighting spirit, whereas insecure attachment to God was uniquely linked to hopelessness, suggesting that security, unlike insecurity, in one's attachment to God may impact favourably on adjustment to the disease. The only coping strategy related to type of disease was cognitive avoidance, which was linked to chronic disease.     

The role of religious resources for older adults coping with illness

The present study investigated the role of religious/spiritual appraisal and coping among a community sample of older adults with illness. In particular this study explored the relationship between these religious resources and nonreligious cognitive appraisals (e.g., threat) and coping behavior in response to illness. These religious resources were related to more adaptive forms of general appraisal and coping. For example, meaning-making related to God (e.g., God's will) was linked to more positive appraisals of the illness and its potential to lead to growth. As well, various forms of religious coping behavior were associated with older adults' use of positive reframing and active forms of general coping. Such findings have implications for counselors and health care providers in their work with older adults adjusting to illness.     

Belief in Supernatural Evil and Mental Health: Do Secure Attachment to God and Gender Matter?

This study examines whether belief in supernatural evil is associated with mental health. In addition, it assesses how secure attachment to God moderates this association and how gender conditions the moderating effect of secure attachment to God. Among a variety of mental health outcomes, this study focuses on general mental health problems as well as anxiety-related disorders (e.g., general anxiety, social anxiety, and paranoia). Using data from the 2010 Baylor Religion Survey (N = 1,627), the analyses reveal that belief in supernatural evil is positively associated with general anxiety and paranoia. In addition, secure attachment to God buffers the positive associations between belief in supernatural evil and social anxiety and paranoia. Yet, when general mental health problems and general anxiety serve as the outcome measures, secure attachment to God attenuates the positive associations of belief in supernatural evil with mental health only for women, but not men. These results underscore the ways that religious beliefs have both positive and negative implications for mental health. Furthermore, they highlight the importance of gender in the complex relationships between religious beliefs and mental health.     

Two Dimensions of Attachment to God and Their Relation to Affect, Religiosity, and Personality Constructs

In this study we sought to address several limitations of previous research on attachment theory and religion by (1) developing a dimensional attachment to God scale, and (2) demonstrating that dimensions of attachment to God are predictive of measures of affect and personality after controlling for social desirability and other related dimensions of religiosity. Questionnaire measures of these constructs were completed by a sample of university students and community adults (total n = 374). Consistent with prior research on adult romantic attachment, two dimensions of attachment to God were identified: avoidance and anxiety . After statistically controlling for social desirability, intrinsic religiousness, doctrinal orthodoxy, and loving God image, anxious attachment to God remained a significant predictor of neuroticism , negative affect , and (inversely) positive affect ; avoidant attachment to God remained a significant inverse predictor of religious symbolic immortality and agreeableness . These findings are evidence that correlations between attachment to God and measures of personality and affect are not merely byproducts of confounding effects of socially desirable responding or other dimensions of religiosity.     

Prevalence,Predictors, and Implications of Religious/Spiritual Struggles Among Muslims

The current investigation explored prevalence, predictors, and psychological implications of religious and spiritual (r/s) struggles among an Israeli‐Palestinian, Muslim sample. R/s struggle was assessed by the Religious and Spiritual Struggles Scale (Exline et al. 2014), a newly developed scale that assesses a wide array of r/s struggles. Factor analysis of the scale in this study revealed five factors of struggle: Divine and Doubt, Punitive Entities, Interpersonal, Moral, and Ultimate Meaning. Of the 139 Muslim participants, between 1.4 percent and 40.2 percent experienced various r/s struggles. Positive God image and fundamentalism predicted lower levels of struggle, whereas negative God image and universality predicted higher levels of struggle. After controlling for religious variables, we found that both depressive symptoms and generalized anxiety were predicted by Punitive Entities and Ultimate Meaning struggles, while satisfaction with life was predicted by Interpersonal struggle. Possible explanations and implications of the findings are offered, and the limitations of the study are discussed.     

Spiritual Struggles and Mental Health: Exploring the Moderating Effects of Religious Identity

Although many studies have explored the salutary associations between multiple dimensions of religiousness and psychological well-being, a smaller body of work has focused on the links between spiritual struggles and negative mental health outcomes. Two types of spiritual struggles have received considerable attention in this literature: divine struggles, or troubled relationships with God, and struggles with belief, or religious doubts. Using data from a nationwide online survey of U.S. adults conducted in 2006, our study investigated links between these types of spiritual struggles and four aspects of psychopathology: depressed affect, anxiety, phobic anxiety, and somatization. In particular, we tested the hypothesis that these links vary according to religious identity, such that individuals who identify themselves as highly religious—and therefore are likely to be most invested in their roles as religious persons—experience the strongest negative effects of spiritual struggles, in comparison with persons who identify themselves as moderately religious, or not religious at all. Findings supported this overall hypothesis. The article concludes by noting several study limitations and identifying promising directions for further research.     

Spiritual Disposition and Understanding Illness

Although Dull and Skokan (1995) proposed a cognitive model of the effect of religion on health, they neglected to clearly identify the multi-dimensional nature of religion as a cognitive schema. The present paper identifies various aspects of spiritual disposition (defined as personality and beliefs) that can play a role in an individual’s adaptation to illness. Specifically, this paper reviews the factors of religious doctrine and affiliation, spiritual beliefs, religious orientation, God locus of control, faith and hope as aspects of a spiritual disposition and explores how they can function as resources and/or negative factors in the process of adjustment to illness. Implications for clinical health care (e.g., pastoral counsellors) are drawn from this review.     

An Empirical Examination of Religious/Spiritual Struggle Among Israeli Jews

The current investigation examined the prevalence, predictors, and psychological implications of religious and spiritual (r/s) struggles among a sample of Israeli-Jewish university students. R/s struggle was assessed by the Religious and Spiritual Struggles (RSS) Scale. This is a newly constructed scale that assesses a wide array of r/s struggles. The RSS is composed of six factors of struggles: Divine, Doubt, Demonic, Interpersonal, Moral, and Ultimate Meaning. Confirmatory factor analysis of the RSS in this study confirmed this six-factor structure. Of the 164 Jewish participants, between 1.2% and 30.5% experienced various r/s struggles. Beliefs in a cruel God and distant God, religious participation, and fundamentalism predicted higher levels of different types of struggle. All six forms of struggle were correlated with greater psychological distress. In regression equations including r/s struggles and demographic and religious variables, Moral struggles predicted lower life satisfaction, Divine struggles predicted depressive symptoms, and both Divine and Doubt struggles predicted generalized anxiety. Possible explanations and implications of the findings are offered. We conclude by pointing to the limitations of the study and suggesting a few directions for future research.     

Understanding and Incorporating God Representations Within Counseling

The religious and spiritual identity of a client may be relevant to the counseling process, and thus counselors should be prepared to integrate these components within treatment. The authors consider the assessment and exploration of God representations (i.e., God images and concepts) to understand and integrate religious and spiritual meanings within the context of a client's presenting concerns. The authors provide examples, strategies, and considerations for how to apply God representations within counseling.     

The role of attachment to God and spiritual self-awareness in predicting evangelical Christians’ appraisals of suffering

The present study examined how attachment to God and spiritual self-awareness are related to evangelical Christians’ appraisals of suffering. Specifically, we were interested in whether attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance with God were related to the appraised meaning of stressful life experiences as transformational and whether spiritual self-awareness mediated this relationship. A national sample (N?=?988) of students from Christian institutions completed an online survey. The results indicated that individuals with high levels of attachment anxiety or attachment avoidance with God were less likely to view suffering as a means of spiritual growth and connection with God. Mediation analyses also showed that higher levels of avoidant attachment to God were related to lower levels of spiritual self-awareness, which in turn were related to reduced ability to appraise suffering as transformational. Clinical implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Secure Attachment to God Uniquely Linked to Psychological Health in a National,Random Sample of American Adults

Relationships between religiousness and psychological health are well established. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate whether perceived relationship with God (i.e., attachment to God) or how people view God (i.e., image of God) account for variation in psychological distress and well-being. Statistical relationships between two attachment to God dimensions (avoidance, anxiety), two dimensions of God image (forgiving, wrathful), and general psychological well-being were investigated in a convenience sample (Study 1) and nationally representative sample (Study 2) of American adults who expressed belief in God or a higher power. In both studies, secure attachment to God (i.e., lower avoidance, lower anxiety) and religious service attendance were positively correlated with self-reported psychological well-being. Hierarchical regressions indicated that attachment to God dimensions account for unique variability in reported mental health even after religious service attendance, prayer frequency, God image and demographic variables were statistically controlled. Negligible associations were found between images of God as forgiving or wrathful and psychological well-being. Perceived relationship with God appears to be an important factor in the connection between religiousness and psychological health.     

“Why me?” – women’s use of spiritual causal attributions in making sense of breast cancer

Objective: This study addressed the role of positive (event is due to God’s Love or to God’s Will) and negative (event is due to God’s Anger) spiritual causal attributions in women’s adjustment to breast cancer.

Design: Ninety-three women diagnosed with breast cancer were assessed at six times from pre-diagnosis through two years post-surgery.

Main outcome measures: Women completed positive and negative measures of spiritual causal attributions (e.g. God’s Love), cognitive appraisals (e.g. threat), coping behaviour (e.g. avoidance) and well-being (e.g. distress).

Results: Positive spiritual attributions were consistently related to positive aspects of adjustment (e.g. positive appraisal, acceptance coping, and/or emotional well-being) while negative spiritual attribution was related to negative factors (e.g. appraisals of loss and uncontrollability, avoidance coping, and/or emotional distress). Path analyses revealed that the effects of positive and negative spiritual attributions on well-being were mediated by general cognitive appraisal and coping behaviour. Cross-lagged correlational analysis revealed a ‘downward spiral’ effect wherein the negative attribution of God’s Anger at pre-diagnosis predicted greater distress at 1 week pre-surgery which in turn predicted an increase in the negative attribution and so on across time.

Conclusion: Although positive spiritual attributions may help women maintain an attitude of hope and acceptance in the face of cancer, results indicate that the effects of negative spiritual attribution can play a significant role in undermining their well-being.     

Unusual but sound minds: Mental health indicators in spiritual individuals

Previous research has linked certain types of modern spirituality, including New Age and Pagan, with either benign schizotypy or insecure attachment. While the first view emphasizes a positive aspect of spiritual believers’ mental health (benign schizotypy), the second view emphasizes a negative aspect, namely the unhealthy emotional compensation associated with an insecure attachment style. This study addresses these two conflicting views by comparing a sample of modern spiritual individuals (N = 114) with a contrast group of traditional religious believers (N = 86). Measures of schizotypy and attachment style were combined with mental health scales of anxiety and depression. We further assessed death anxiety to determine whether modern spiritual beliefs fulfilled a similar function as traditional religious beliefs in the reduction of existential threat. Our results support a psychological contiguity between traditional and modern spiritual believers and reinforce the need to de‐stigmatize spiritual ideas and experiences. Using hierarchical regression, we showed that unusual experiences and ideas are the major predictor of engagement in modern spiritual practices. Anxiety, depression variables, and insecure attachment were not significant predictors of spirituality or correlated with them; on the other hand, the results show that spiritual believers report high social support satisfaction and this variable predicts involvement in modern spirituality. Further, spiritual practices were negatively correlated with and negatively predicted by death anxiety scores. Overall, the results strengthen the association between modern spirituality, good mental health, and general well‐being.     

Implicit theories of intellectual virtues and vices: A focus on intellectual humility

Psychological science has consistently highlighted links between gratitude and religion, however mediating pathways by which religion relates to gratitude remain ambiguous. Further, it is unclear whether religious gratitude (e.g., gratitude to God) is more related to well-being than general gratitude. To address these gaps, we assessed for both religious and general dimensions of gratitude alongside measures of religious commitment and mental/physical well-being in a diverse sample of n?=?405 adult individuals. Consistent with previous research, gratitude was positively correlated with religious commitment (r?=?0.45, p?<?0.001). This relationship, however, was fully mediated by gratitude towards God. Using hierarchical linear regression, results further found that the interaction of religious commitment and religious gratitude added unique variance in predicting mental well-being, over and above general gratitude. This suggests that being grateful to God enhances the psychological benefits of gratitude in accordance with one's level of religious commitment.     

Religious Doubts and Sleep Quality: Findings from a Nationwide Study of Presbyterians #090709revised

A growing literature examines the correlates and sequelae of spiritual struggles, such as religious doubts. To date, however, this literature has focused primarily on a handful of mental health outcomes (e.g., symptoms of depression, anxiety, negative affect), while the possible links with other aspects of health and well-being, such as poor or disrupted sleep, have received much less attention. After reviewing relevant theory and previous studies, we analyze data from a nationwide sample of Presbyterian Church (USA) members to test the hypothesis that religious doubts will be inversely associated with overall self-rated sleep quality, and positively associated with the frequency of sleep problems and the use of sleep medications. We also hypothesize that part of this association will be explained by the link between religious doubts and psychological distress. Results offer moderate but consistent support for these predictions. We end with a discussion of the implications of these findings, a brief mention of study limitations, and some suggestions for future research.     

Who Believes in a Male God? Ideological Beliefs and Gendered Conceptualizations of God

Recent studies have explored whether certain conceptualizations of God are associated with various attitudes and beliefs. In the current study, we examined the relationship between gendered God concepts and the belief that God is involved in one’s life and religious-related rigid ideologies (i.e., religious fundamentalism and right-wing authoritarianism [RWA]). Across two studies, one conducted with religious students at a Jesuit university and the other with a national sample, we found that individuals who believed God to be male were more likely to believe that God had more control and involvement in their life, had higher levels of religious fundamentalism and higher levels of RWA-Aggression (Study 1 and 2), RWA–Submission (Study 1 and 2), and RWA–Conventionalism (Study 2) than individuals with other gendered or nongendered conceptualizations of God. Implications of the broader impact that gendered God concepts have on social and political domains are explored. Last, limitations and future research directions are discussed.     

Cognitive risk factors explain the relations between neuroticism and social anxiety for males and females

The hierarchical model of vulnerabilities to emotional distress contextualizes the relation between neuroticism and social anxiety as occurring indirectly through cognitive risk factors. In particular, inhibitory intolerance of uncertainty (IU; difficulty in uncertain circumstances), fear of negative evaluation (FNE; fear of being judged negatively), and anxiety sensitivity (AS) social concerns (fear of outwardly observable anxiety) are related to social anxiety. It is unclear whether these risk factors uniquely relate to social anxiety, and whether they account for the relations between neuroticism and social anxiety. The indirect relations between neuroticism and social anxiety through these and other risk factors were examined using structural equation modeling in a sample of 462 individuals (M age = 36.56, SD = 12.93; 64.3% female). Results indicated that the relations between neuroticism and social anxiety could be explained through inhibitory IU, FNE, and AS social concerns. No gender differences were found. These findings provide support for the hierarchical model of vulnerabilities to emotional distress disorders, although the cognitive risk factors accounted for variance beyond their contribution to the relation between neuroticism and social anxiety, suggesting a more complex model than that expressed in the hierarchical model of vulnerabilities.