RESEARCH: "The Sanctification of the Body and Behavioral Health Patterns of College Students"

Mahoney, Annette; Carels, Robert A.; Pargäment, Kenneth I.; Wachholtz, Amy; Leeper, Laura Edwards; Kaplar, Mary E.; Frutchey, Robin

doi:10.1207/s15327582ijpr1503_3

Cited by 146 publications

(140 citation statements)

References 21 publications

(33 reference statements)

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“…On the other hand, religious teachings that the body is a temple and that life is a divine gift may instill a sense of responsibility to care for one's body and maintain good health status. A study of college students found that those who viewed their bodies as linked to God or possessing divine qualities reported higher levels of health protective behaviors and general exercise and lower levels of unhealthy dieting practices and substance use [37]. The following studies suggest that the contribution of faith to attitudes and behaviors that foster health extends to people with medical conditions.…”

Section: Religious Coping and Active Copingmentioning

confidence: 76%

Medicine for the Spirit: Religious Coping in Individuals with Medical Conditions

2010

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Abstract:Religious coping now represents a key variable of interest in research on health outcomes, not only because many individuals turn to their faith in times of illness, but also because studies have frequently found that religious coping is associated with desirable health outcomes. The purpose of this article is to familiarize readers with recent investigations of religious coping in samples with medical conditions. The present article will begin by describing a conceptual model of religious coping. The article will then provide data on the prevalence of religious coping in a range of samples. After presenting findings that illustrate the general relationship between religious coping and health outcomes, the article will review more specific pathways through which religious coping is thought to impact health. These pathways include shaping individuals' active coping with health problems, influencing patients' emotional responses to illness, fostering social support, and facilitating meaning making. This article will also address the darker side of religious coping, describing forms of coping that are linked to negative outcomes. Examples of religious coping interventions will also be reviewed. Finally, we will close with suggestions for future work in this important field of research.

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Section: Religious Coping and Active Copingmentioning

confidence: 76%

Medicine for the Spirit: Religious Coping in Individuals with Medical Conditions

2010

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“…Coefficients are standardized regression coefficients. ‫ء‬ p Ͻ .05. endowed with a spiritual or religious importance) generate more goal striving (e.g., Mahoney, Carels, et al, 2005;Mahoney et al, 1999) and less goal conflict (Emmons, Cheung, & Tehrani, 1998). Third, the evidence for the proposition that religiousness promotes self-monitoring is mixed.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In another study, Mahoney, Carels, et al (2005) found that the extent to which participants (289 college students from a university in the Midwestern United States) viewed their physical bodies as manifestations of God (e.g., "My body is a gift from God") or as possessing sacred qualities (e.g., "holy," "sacred," "spiritual," etc.) was positively associated with indices of behavioral health, including (a) the frequency with which participants engaged in health-protective behaviors such as wearing their seatbelts, getting enough sleep, and taking vitamins; (b) subjective satisfaction with their bodies; and (c) disapproval of, and abstinence from, illicit drug use.…”

Section: Proposition 2b: Religion Increases the Importance Of Some Gomentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, Mahoney et al (1999) instructed 97 married couples who had had babies in the previous 6 -24 months (identified through birth registries) to complete self-report measures of their marital functioning and a variety of measures of religiosity, including 78 MCCULLOUGH AND WILLOUGHBY measures of the extent to which they had sanctified their marriages. The researchers found that both husbands and wives who viewed their marriages as "sacred" and as "manifestations of God" reported better marital adjustment, less marital conflict (for wives), and more productive conflict resolution than did participants who did not view their marriages as sacred or as manifestations of God.In another study, Mahoney, Carels, et al (2005) found that the extent to which participants (289 college students from a university in the Midwestern United States) viewed their physical bodies as manifestations of God (e.g., "My body is a gift from God") or as possessing sacred qualities (e.g., "holy," "sacred," "spiritual," etc.) was positively associated with indices of behavioral health, including (a) the frequency with which participants engaged in health-protective behaviors such as wearing their seatbelts, getting enough sleep, and taking vitamins; (b) subjective satisfaction with their bodies; and (c) disapproval of, and abstinence from, illicit drug use.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Religion, self-regulation, and self-control: Associations, explanations, and implications.

McCullough

Willoughby

2009

Psychological Bulletin

888

773

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Many of the links of religiousness with health, well-being, and social behavior may be due to religion's influences on self-control or self-regulation. Using Carver and Scheier's (1998) theory of self-regulation as a framework for organizing the empirical research, the authors review evidence relevant to 6 propositions: (a) that religion can promote self-control; (b) that religion influences how goals are selected, pursued, and organized; (c) that religion facilitates self-monitoring; (d) that religion fosters the development of self-regulatory strength; (e) that religion prescribes and fosters proficiency in a suite of self-regulatory behaviors; and (f) that some of religion's influences on health, well-being, and social behavior may result from religion's influences on self-control and self-regulation. The authors conclude with suggestions for future research.Keywords: religion, self-control, self-regulation, motivation, personalityReligion is a potent social force. History testifies to religion's ability to focus and coordinate human effort, to create awe and terror, to foster war and peace, to unify social groups, and to galvanize them against each other. In addition to religion's social power, however, religion is a psychological force that can influence the outcomes of individual human lives. Indeed, the range of health-related, behavioral, and social outcomes with which religiousness is associated is both provocative and puzzling.Consider these well-replicated findings. First, religiousness (measured variously as high levels of traditional religious belief; frequent involvement in religious institutions such as churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples; and engagement in religious practices such as reading scripture, worship, and prayer) has a small, positive association with longevity. In a meta-analytic review of 42 independent effect sizes, McCullough, Hoyt, Larson, Koenig, and Thoresen (2000) discovered that people who were highly religious were, on average, 29% more likely to be alive at any given follow-up point than were less religious people (95% confidence interval: 1.20 to 1.39). In a traditional narrative review of studies considered by the authors to be of high quality (e.g., studies with large, representative samples and adequate statistical control of potential confounds), Powell, Shahabi, and Thoresen (2003) likewise concluded that frequent religious service attendance was associated with a 25% reduction in mortality.Studies published after McCullough et al.'s (2000) and Powell et al.'s (2003) reviews have yielded similar conclusions in random samples of U.S. adults (Musick, House, & Williams, 2004); older Mexican Americans (T. D. Hill, Angel, Ellison, & Angel, 2005); and adults in Denmark (la Cour, Avlund, & Schultz-Larsen, 2006), Finland (Teinonen, Vahlberg, Isoaho, & Kivela, 2005), and Taiwan (Yeager et al., 2006). These latter studies have also revealed 25% to 30% reductions in mortality for religiously active people, even after controlling for reasonable sets of potential confounds...

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“…The results obtained suggest that the relation between religiosity and alcohol consumption is moderated by personality traits (Johnson et al, 2008), gender, religious commitment, and religious affiliation (Koenig et al, 2001). Significant predictors of the relation between religiosity and alcohol consumption turned out to be beliefs about and attitudes towards substance abuse (Bachman et al, 2002), the perception of social norms, modeling, substance use encouragements (Johnson et al, 2008), satisfaction with one's own body (Mahoney, Carels, Pargament et al, 2005), religious coping with stress, and sense of locus of control in God (Murray, Goggin, & Malcarne, 2006).…”

Section: Predictors Of Quality Of Life In Alcohol Addictsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Religious support and religious struggle as predictors of quality of life in alkoholics anonymous: Moderation by duration of abstinence

Zarzycka

Ziółkowska

Śliwak

2017

RPsych

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The aim of the study was to analyze the connection between religious comfort and struggle and quality of life in Alcoholics Anonymous. The interaction effect of the length of abstinence and religious variables on the quality of life was tested as well. The participants were 100 members of an Alcoholics Anonymous group. We used the Religious Comfort and Strain Scale by Yali, Exline, Wood, and Worthington and the Quality of Life Questionnaire for Adults by Schalock and Keith. The correlation analysis showed that Religious Comfort correlated positively while fear-guilt and negative emotions towards God correlated negatively with quality of life in the AA group. Duration of abstinence played a moderating role: participants in the long abstinence period group with high religious comfort showed the highest level of quality of life.

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RESEARCH: "The Sanctification of the Body and Behavioral Health Patterns of College Students"

Cited by 146 publications

References 21 publications

Medicine for the Spirit: Religious Coping in Individuals with Medical Conditions

Medicine for the Spirit: Religious Coping in Individuals with Medical Conditions

Religion, self-regulation, and self-control: Associations, explanations, and implications.

Religious support and religious struggle as predictors of quality of life in alkoholics anonymous: Moderation by duration of abstinence

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