Religiosity and Mental Health: A Contribution to Understanding the Heterogeneity of Research Findings

Abstract

Most studies report positive associations between religiosity and spirituality and aspects of mental health, while a small proportion report mixed or fully negative associations. The aim of this study was to assess the associations of religiosity measured more specifically, with mental health in a secular environment, using a nationally representative sample of Czech adults (n = 1795). We measured religious affiliation, conversion experience, non-religious attitudes and the stability of these attitudes, mental health problems, and anxiety levels. Compared to stable non-religious respondents, unstable non-religious and converted respondents who perceived God as distant were more likely to experience anxiety in close relationships, and had higher risks of worse mental health. Our findings support the idea that the heterogeneity of findings in associations between religiosity/spirituality and mental health could be due to measurement problems and variation in the degree of secularity. A shift towards religiosity could be expected to be seen in a substantial part of non-religious respondents in problematic times.

Editors’ Comments on the Special Issue “Social Determinants of Mental Health”

“…A fifth article studied the effect of religiosity on mental health, concluding that attachment and closeness to God seem important for improving mental health, but it is necessary to consider other socioeconomic factors. In addition, this article considered that a unification of the indicators that measure religiosity is necessary since the results vary widely according to the selected indicators [ 13 ]. Other research has demonstrated that the hedonic and utilitarian performances of volunteer tourism significantly and positively contribute to increasing travellers’ mental health, which ultimately enhances their prosocial intentions [ 14 ].…”

Childhood Trauma and Experience in Close Relationships Are Associated with the God Image: Does Religiosity Make a Difference?

“…Of these adjectives (e.g., critical, distant, loving, just), 15 were taken from the 2005 Baylor Religion Survey (Baylor University, Waco, TX, USA, 2005). Respondents chose from the possible answers "very well" (1); "somewhat well" (2); "not very well" (3); "not at all (4)". The respondents who identified themselves as believers and were further considered as religious described how well in their opinion the adjectives describe God.…”

“…However, their responses can still offer a certain image of God, who they do not believe in [44]. For the purpose of statistical analysis, each item was dichotomized following the approach of Malinakova et al [3]. Therefore, only the respondents from both the religious and nonreligious groups who declared a full agreement/disagreement with a specific adjective were considered as seeing God in this way.…”

“…The Avoidance subscale measures the extent to which people feel uncomfortable being close to others. In the main analyses, both subscales were assessed as a binary variable created by dichotomizing the score with the subscale's upper quartile as the cut-off point, as used, e.g., in [3]. Cronbach's alpha in our sample was 0.85.…”

“…However, a small number of studies can be found that show opposite or mixed results [2]. Besides other possible explanations, e.g., measurement problems and sociocultural differences [3], it is also possible to consider different ways in which people experience their R/S, specifically their perceived quality of the relationship with God [4] and the image of God [5,6]. Recent research distinguishes between a God concept and a God image.…”