Gratitude to God, Self‐Rated Health, and Depressive Symptoms

Abstract

This study has three goals. The first is to see whether the opportunity to engage in volunteer work at church fosters friendships with co‐religionists. The second goal is to see whether the support these friends provide bolsters feelings of gratitude to God. The third goal is to see whether feelings of gratitude to God are associated with health and depressive symptoms. The following linkages in our conceptual model elaborate and extend these objectives: (1) people who go to church more often will be more likely to participate in volunteer work through their congregations; (2) individuals who perform volunteer work at church will have more friends among their co‐religionists; (3) people who have more friends where they worship will report receiving more emotional support from fellow congregants; (4) those who receive more support from co‐religionists will feel more grateful to God; and (5) individuals who are more grateful to God will rate their health in a more favorable manner and experience fewer symptoms of depression. Data from the U.S. Congregational Life Survey provide support for each of these relationships.

Qualitatively Exploring the Relationship among Gratitude, Spirituality and Life Satisfaction in Turkish-Muslim Children

“…All holy books, moral thoughts, and philosophies regard gratitude as a fundamental virtue (Bahrampoura & Yazdkhast, 2014;Emmons & Crumpler, 2000;Krause et al, 2014). For this reason, the most magnificent gratitude is that expressed to God by believers.…”

Church Member Support Benefits Psychological Well-Being of Pregnant African American Women

“…Rural low-income mothers of children 12 years old or younger (44% minority) who reported higher levels of attendance at religious services also reported lower level of depressive symptoms (Garrison, Marks, Lawrence, & Braun, 2004). However, other researchers have not found a relationship between attendance at religious services and depressive symptoms in men and women (Chatters et al, 2014; Krause, Bruce, Hayward, & Woolever, 2014). …”

Handbook of Positive Psychology, Religion, and Spirituality

“…Across both literatures, an important question involves the need to explore the causal direction of the association between R/S and virtue. Several research groups have proposed models that situate R/S and virtue in a causal chain, and most situate R/S engagement in a faith community as leading to greater virtue (e.g., Krause et al, 2014). These studies have yet to use designs that would support an inference of mediation-and recently, scientists have become increasingly critical of correlational, cross-sectional tests of mediation .…”