The relationship between spiritual, religious and personal beliefs and disordered eating psychopathology

Abstract

Links between religiosity, spirituality and disordered eating have been posited theoretically and empirically, though most studies have accessed predominantly Christian or Jewish samples from private educational institutions, using surveys which contain a heavy JudeoChristian bias. The aim of the current study is to explore the relationship between disordered eating psychopathology (DEP) and spiritual, religious and personal beliefs (SRPBs) in a diverse sample of students with a wide range of cultural, religious and spiritual affiliations. Using a cross-sectional design, female students (n = 687) across two universities in Sydney, Australia completed the Eating Disorder Inventory-3 and the SRPB portion of the World Health Organisation Quality of Life -Spiritual, Religious and Personal Beliefs bref (WHOQOL-SRPB bref) questionnaire. While both existential and religious beliefs were significantly correlated with lower levels of DEP, multivariate analysis found that existential beliefs alone predicted DEP (p < 0.001). These results reveal that spiritual and personal beliefs may have a greater role in predicting lower levels of DEP than religious beliefs in a secular university setting. Furthermore, the findings may have important clinical implications including the exploration of existential and religious mechanisms within current treatment models.

Valid assessment of spiritual quality of life with the WHOQOL-SRPB BREF across religious, spiritual, and secular persons: A psychometric study.

“…Furthermore, this nonsignificant relationship may raise questions about whether spiritual coping QOL is a culturally relevant construct among the NRS. This aligns with the findings of Akrawi and colleagues (2017), who noted that this factor failed to account for additional variance in Australian college women’s disordered eating pathology when existential QOL was controlled.…”

“…Comparison of group mean differences on existential QOL between the NRS and SNR is appropriate (partial scalar invariance held), but comparison of scores between either of these two groups and the RS is not appropriate. While SQOL-9 has been marketed for crossworldview use (Skevington et al, 2013) and is already being used to compare SQOL across these groups (e.g., Akrawi et al, 2017), our results suggest caution in using the SQOL-9 in this manner. Using the SQOL-9 to compare associations and group mean differences across these groups may sometimes result in inaccurate conclusions regarding respondents' quality of life.…”

“…Without ME/I, an unknown proportion of any observed intergroup difference could be because of differences in measurement, rather than true differences in the degree of SQOL. Given that the SQOL-9 is explicitly marketed as the preferred instrument for cross-worldview SQOL research (Skevington et al, 2013), and is already being used to compare SPIRITUAL QUALITY OF LIFE 5 SQOL across worldview groups (e.g., Akrawi et al, 2017), it is important to provide evidence that the instrument measures the same factors across NRS, SNR, and RS samples.…”

Effect of spiritual intelligence on spiritual health during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…On the one hand, people who consider themselves spiritual are better able to cope with stress and take the necessary measures to deal with life crises. On the other hand, people may get depressed, feel isolated and lose the meaning of life when their spiritual health is at risk (Akrawi et al 2017). Spiritual health can play a considerable role in enhancing spiritual growth because it is related to people's beliefs (Kaur, Sambasivan & Kumar 2013).…”