Open-Ended Descriptions of Religious/Spiritual Struggles: Salient Themes and Associations with the Religious and Spiritual Struggles (RSS) Scale and Religiousness

Takahashi, Joyce T.; Jeong, Peter; Exline, Julie J.; Pargäment, Kenneth I.

doi:10.20944/preprints202007.0575.v1

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…As described in more detail in Wilt et al (2020), four struggle domains from the RSS (Exline et al, 2014) were reported often: Divine (22% of responses across coders), interpersonal (13%), moral (20%), and doubt (21%). Ultimate meaning struggles were rarely reported (5%).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…As described in detail in a separate article (Wilt et al, 2020), using strategies similar to the qualitative description methodology (Sandelowski, 2000(Sandelowski, , 2010, independent coders (the second and fourth authors) assigned descriptive labels to themes and then grouped the themes deductively according to one of the six r/s struggle domains assessed by the Religious and Spiritual Struggles Scale (RSS; Exline et al, 2014): Divine, demonic, interpersonal, moral, doubt, and ultimate meaning. Because very few responses (about 1%) were classified as demonic, this domain was excluded from the manual.…”

Section: Open-ended Questions and Coding Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A mixed-methods study of communing with and complaining to the divine: Imagined conversations with god among undergraduates reporting religious and spiritual struggles.

Takahashi¹,

Yun²,

Jeong³

et al. 2023

Psychology of Religion and Spirituality

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Religious and spiritual (r/s) struggles pertain to matters of ultimate significance, such as moral dilemmas, religious doubts, and perceived conflict with God. Because people cannot offer absolute or objective solutions to such struggles, some turn to God for guidance and support. In a mixed-methods study of undergraduates from three U.S. universities (N = 976), we examined open-ended descriptions of imagined conversations with God during r/s struggles, and we tested whether conversation patterns differed for people focusing on divine struggles (n = 290) versus nondivine struggles (n = 680). Qualitative coding suggested that a variety of positive themes were common in expressions to God (e.g., gratitude) and imagined responses from God (e.g., unconditional love), whereas negative themes (e.g., questions about suffering; imagined abandonment) were uncommon. Examples of themes and conversation patterns are provided and interpreted. Scores derived from qualitative codes achieved evidence of reliability, and quantitative correlational analyses showed that more positive expressions generally associated with more positive imagined responses; however, people focused on divine struggles had more negative conversation patterns than those focused on nondivine struggles. In all, conversation themes and patterns were consistent with the view that people perceive God in relational terms and that one’s perceived relationship with God may be disrupted when focusing on divine struggles. Based on these findings, we suggest that providers working with clients reporting r/s struggles may explore imagined conversations with the divine to obtain potentially useful information about clients’ perceived relationships with God and facilitate greater understanding and resolution of these struggles.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Open-ended Questions and Coding Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

A mixed-methods study of communing with and complaining to the divine: Imagined conversations with god among undergraduates reporting religious and spiritual struggles.

Takahashi¹,

Yun²,

Jeong³

et al. 2023

Psychology of Religion and Spirituality

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A valuable advance for future work would be to examine open-ended descriptions of politically oriented r/s struggles (cf. Wilt et al, 2020) or to do a more in-depth look at dimensions of particular relevance to political r/s struggles, such as demonic attributions, politically related anger, and interpersonal religious struggles.…”

Section: Limitations and Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Religious and spiritual struggles around the 2016 and 2020 U.S. presidential elections.

Exline¹,

Stauner²,

Wilt³

et al. 2023

Psychology of Religion and Spirituality

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This project focused on religious/spiritual (r/s) struggles reported by U.S. adults around the 2016 and 2020 U.S. Presidential elections. Two separate samples of U.S. Mechanical Turk workers completed surveys about the 2016 (N = 504) and 2020 (N = 618) elections, with cross-sectional data collected between each election and the inauguration. Overall levels of r/s struggle were similar between the two elections. In 2016, Democratic voters (those voting for Clinton) struggled more than Republican voters (those voting for Trump), whereas in 2020, Trump and Biden voters struggled at similar levels. In both elections, interpersonal struggles around religion were the top-rated r/s struggle for Democratic voters, whereas Republican voters showed a more even balance of struggles (divine, demonic, interpersonal, moral, ultimate meaning, and doubt). Yet, aside from these straightforward differences in struggle based on whether one's preferred candidate won or lost, correlations, regressions, and path models revealed similar predictors of struggle across both elections: more negative reactions to election results, greater religiousness, more demonic attributions, more divine attributions (especially negative attributions about God's intent), more right-wing authoritarianism (specifically, authoritarian aggression/submission; clearest in 2020), and more anger at both Democrats and Republicans. Taken together, these findings suggest that major societal events such as Presidential elections have the potential to trigger r/s struggles for many individuals. Given the current level of political polarization in the U.S., along with the many ways in which politics and religion can become intertwined, the nature, causes, and consequences of politically focused r/s struggles merit more research attention.

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“…Recent research has also demonstrated the added utility of open-ended assessment of r/s struggles. Wilt, Takahashi, Jeong, Exline, and Pargament (Wilt et al 2020) found that open-ended descriptions of religious and spiritual struggles provide valid and reliable data that is associated with, but distinct from, assessments relying on closed-ended items. An open-ended assessment approach may be particularly useful for understanding the r/s struggles of marginalized populations, such as those who have been convicted of a sexual offense.…”

Section: Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Let Him Who Is without Sin Cast the First Stone: Religious Struggle among Persons Convicted of Sexually Offending

Robertson¹,

Magyar‐Russell

Piedmont

2020

Religions

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Religiousness and spirituality have been identified as important factors in promoting desistance from sexual offending and as helpful coping resources with negative psychological consequences related to public registration. However, the potential mental health benefits, and detriments, of religiousness and spirituality for persons convicted of sexually offending have not been widely examined. Given the moral implications of their behavior and stigmatization by society, including from religious and spiritual communities, this study aimed to examine levels of religious struggle and their associations with symptoms of mental health among 30 men on the Maryland Sex Offense Registry. Relative to the normative sample, the mean level of spiritual transcendence, constructive perceptions of spirituality that develop within social, cultural, and educational contexts, was significantly lower within this sample. Conversely, religious struggle mean scores indicated that the men in this sample experienced significantly greater difficulties relative to God and their faith community. Greater levels of religious struggle were significantly related to higher neuroticism, greater self-reported shame, depression, anxiety, and hopelessness, as well as lower levels of self-compassion. Based on these preliminary findings, religious struggles may adversely influence the mental health of persons convicted of sexually offending. More research is needed to gain a better understanding of the associations between religiousness, spirituality, and mental health in this population. Future directions for research and clinical implications for mental health providers, including spiritually informed treatment approaches with persons convicted of sexually offending, are discussed.

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Open-Ended Descriptions of Religious/Spiritual Struggles: Salient Themes and Associations with the Religious and Spiritual Struggles (RSS) Scale and Religiousness

Cited by 3 publications

References 24 publications

A mixed-methods study of communing with and complaining to the divine: Imagined conversations with god among undergraduates reporting religious and spiritual struggles.

A mixed-methods study of communing with and complaining to the divine: Imagined conversations with god among undergraduates reporting religious and spiritual struggles.

Religious and spiritual struggles around the 2016 and 2020 U.S. presidential elections.

Let Him Who Is without Sin Cast the First Stone: Religious Struggle among Persons Convicted of Sexually Offending

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