Examining the links between spiritual struggles and symptoms of psychopathology in a national sample

Abstract

The present study investigated the relationship between spiritual struggles and various types of psychopathology symptoms in individuals who had and had not suffered from a recent illness. Participants completed self-report measures of religious variables and symptoms of psychopathology. Spiritual struggles were assessed by a measure of negative religious coping. As predicted, negative religious coping was significantly linked to various forms of psychopathology, including anxiety, phobic anxiety, depression, paranoid ideation, obsessive-compulsiveness, and somatization, after controlling for demographic and religious variables. In addition, the relationship between negative religious coping and anxiety and phobic anxiety was stronger for individuals who had experienced a recent illness. These results have implications for assessments and interventions targeting spiritual struggles, especially in medical settings.

The Brief RCOPE: Current Psychometric Status of a Short Measure of Religious Coping

“…Several studies support the incremental validity of the NRC scale [28,31,32,44,[49][50][51]. In one such study, NRC remained a significant predictor of IL-6 levels among cardiac patients after controlling for a number of other biomedical indicators and mood states.…”

“…In another study, NRC significantly predicted lower quality of life among advanced cancer patients after controlling for self-efficacy, history of depression and demographic variables [51]. Other studies have demonstrated that NRC can predict outcomes even after controlling for an index of general religiousness-in addition to other relevant demographic, biomedical, and psychological variables [31,49,50]. Sherman, Simonton, Latif, Spohn and Tricot [31] found that, among multiple myeloma patients undergoing stem cell transplantation, NRC remained positively associated with total distress and depression after controlling for demographic and medical variables as well as general religiousness.…”

“…Sherman, Simonton, Latif, Spohn and Tricot [31] found that, among multiple myeloma patients undergoing stem cell transplantation, NRC remained positively associated with total distress and depression after controlling for demographic and medical variables as well as general religiousness. Similarly, using a national sample, McConnell, Pargament, Ellison and Flannelly [49] found that NRC predicted a significant amount of variance in anxiety (R 2 = 0.10), phobic anxiety (0.06), depression (0.10), paranoid ideation (0.10), obsessive-compulsiveness (0.08), and somatization (0.05) after controlling for age, gender, education, ethnicity, income, marital status, social support, occurrence of illness or injury, as well as frequency of prayer, frequency of church attendance. These studies suggest that negative religious coping as measured by the Brief RCOPE uniquely predicts outcomes even after controlling for secular variables and indicators of general religiousness.…”

Spiritual Struggles among Atheists: Links to Psychological Distress and Well-Being

“…R/S struggles are not at all unusual among college students (Bryant and Astin 2008;Johnson and Hayes 2003) or the general U.S. population (Abu-Raiya et al 2015;Ellison and Lee 2010;McConnell et al 2006). Furthermore, a myriad of cross-sectional research suggests that experiences of R/S struggles relate to negative life outcomes (e.g., Abu-Raiya et al 2015;Wilt et al 2017; for reviews, see Exline 2013;Exline and Rose 2005;Wilt et al 2018a).…”

Spiritual reminiscence therapy for older people with loneliness, anxiety and depression living in a residential aged care facility, Malaysia: The effectiveness and older people’s experiences

“…Spirituality was also found to protect against loneliness in a review study of Victor, Scambler, Bond, and Bowling (2000). McConnell, Pargament, Ellison, and Flannelly (2006) studied 1629 participants with an average age of 49 years and reported that those with low levels of spiritual practices might have increased tendencies to develop anxiety and depression. A recent study showed that higher spiritual levels reduced anxiety among 143 older people after controlling for personality, gender and education levels (MacKinlay & Burns, 2017).…”