MDD severity is significantly associated with increased treatment usage/costs, treatment adequacy, unemployment, and disability and with reduced work performance.

Research showing the protective qualities of Relational Spirituality, the experience of an ongoing dynamic personal relationship with G-d, against psychopathology in adolescents prompted the current investigation of its developmental correlates. Relational Spirituality in adolescence has been shown to have an unfolding heritable contribution and to be intertwined with a process of spiritual individuation, to which the current study adds the contribution of parents and peers to the developmental process. Participants were 615 adolescents and young adults representing a diverse range of ethnicities and religious affiliations. To measure parenting and friend variables, the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI), Parental Spiritual Support Scale, and Friends Spiritual Support Scale were utilized. Relational Spirituality was measured using items from several subscales of the Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness/Spirituality to obtain a composite score. Findings of multivariate regression analyses indicated that Maternal Spiritual Support, Paternal Care, and Friends Spiritual Support were significantly positively associated with Relational Spirituality, with Maternal Spiritual Support influencing the selection of peers who offer Friends Spiritual Support. These results underscore the importance of parents and peers in facilitating the development of Relational Spirituality, particularly through maternal openness to discussion about spirituality/religiosity and through paternal affection.

The association between life satisfaction and dimensions of religio sity/spirituality was explored in an ethnically and denominationally diverse sample of 615 adolescents using the Satisfaction with Life Scale and the Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness/Spirituality (BMMRS). Results indicate that most dimensions of religiosity and spirituality are associated with life satisfaction, but that Daily Spiritual Experiences accounts for the largest amount of variance in the models, and attenuates the relationship of other dimensions with life satisfaction when entered into simultaneous regressions. Dimensions of the BMMRS were more predictive than single-item measures of religious service attendance, frequency of prayer, or degree of religiousness/spirituality. Results are discussed in the context of previous adolescent research in the positive psychology of religiosity/spirituality.

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