Sexual Orientation, Religiosity, and Subjective Wellbeing in Canada

Abstract

The cumulative weight of evidence supports that religious involvement has a positive association with subjective wellbeing. This association is found to vary by cultural context, gender, and age. No large scale study exists regarding the effects of sexual orientation on the association between religiosity and subjective wellbeing. This article, using nationally representative Canadian data from 2010 to 2014, fills this gap. As a prelude, the sexual orientation-related differences in religiosity, also not previously examined using Canadian data, are assessed. Both gay males and lesbians are found more likely to be unaffiliated than their heterosexual counterparts. The association of religiosity with subjective wellbeing is found to be positive, though small, for heterosexuals of both genders and for gay males. No statistically significant effect is found for lesbians. Various venues of explanation are explored.

From Supporting Moral Competence to Fostering Spiritual Growth: The Psycho-Didactic Potential of the Konstanz Method of Dilemma Discussion (KMDD®)

“…What happens in every violent act was considered by Habermas at the same time as a systematically distorted communication act (Ashenden 2014). Therefore, it should be assumed that any verbal manifestation of moral (Skitka et al 2013;Wright et al 2013) or religious intolerance is in fact violence and may adversely affect the quality of a person's mental functioning (Dilmaghani 2018). Fostering moral and spiritual competence to prevent these types of situations is a matter of mental health.…”