Religion and Health: Anxiety, Religiosity, Meaning of Life and Mental Health

Abstract

We examined the association among anxiety, religiosity, meaning of life and mental health in a nonclinical sample from a Chinese society. Four hundred fifty-one Taiwanese adults (150 males and 300 females) ranging in age from 17 to 73 years (M = 28.9, SD = 11.53) completed measures of Beck Anxiety Inventory, Medical Outcomes Study Health Survey, Perceived Stress Scale, Social Support Scale, and Personal Religiosity Scale (measuring religiosity and meaning of life). Meaning of life has a significant negative correlation with anxiety and a significant positive correlation with mental health and religiosity; however, religiosity does not correlate significantly anxiety and mental health after controlling for demographic measures, social support and physical health. Anxiety explains unique variance in mental health above meaning of life. Meaning of life was found to partially mediate the relationship between anxiety and mental health. These findings suggest that benefits of meaning of life for mental health can be at least partially accounted for by the effects of underlying anxiety.

Relationship of Cognitive Emotion Regulation and Meaning in Life With Health Anxiety Among Emergency Nurses

“…Results show that meaning in life has significant negative relationship with health anxiety. This is consistent with the findings of Dehghani et al [24] and Shiah and associates [25].…”

The Relationship between Religious Coping Strategies and Happiness with Meaning in Life in Blind People

“…Historically, meaning in life is one of the most controversial issues in psychology and philosophy. So far, some efforts have been made to understand its nature over the centuries and great philosophers and psychologists such as Nietzsche, Sartre, Frankl, Yalom and … discussed it (Loffler et al, 2010;Shiah et al, 2015). A religious culture considered meaning in life as important and it becomes one of the most important components of philosophical problems in moral philosophy.…”

“…Meaning in life component is one of the important philosophical issues not only because of its nature but also due to its necessity and requirements. Although many uncertainties and questions found in this issue, psychologists and philosophers of ethics have always shown great interest in this topic and have tried to answer these questions (Reynolds & Turner, 2008;Shiah et al, 2015).…”

Beliefs in Miraculous Healings, Religiosity and Meaning in Life

“…The above theoretical arguments and studies indicate that transgression, being open for eternal values and towards the supernatural reality helps to increase a sense of purpose and satisfaction with life [38]. It has also been indicated that the sole acceptance of God's existence and religious involvement (one of the aspects of religiosity) help to find the meaning of life.…”