Meaning, Purpose, and Religiosity in at-Risk Youth: The Relationship between Anxiety and Spirituality

Abstract

P sychologists are starting to recognize the role that religion and spirituality can play in emotional well-being. Psychology has traditionally held a negative view of spirituality. Psychologists and psychiatrists from Freud to Ellis have viewed religious orientation as "irrational" and as a "crutch for people who can't handle life" (Clay, 1996, p. 1). However, this view is changing. Research has shown that spirituality and religion may actually enhance mental health in many cases. Spirituality has been shown to be associated with several positive psychological outcomes including subjective well-being (Witter, Stock, Okun, & Haring, 1985), self-esteem (Falbo & Shepperd, 1986), physical health (Gottlieb & Green, 1984) and marital satisfaction (Glenn & Weaver, 1978). Lack of spirituality has been associated with several negative behavioral and psychological outcomes including depression (Wright, Frost,

Clinical Judgment Faith Bias: The Impact of Faith and Multicultural Competence on Clinical Judgment

“…The results of the current study are consistent with the literature finding no relationship between religiousness and clinical judgments of mental health (Davis, Kerr, & Kurpius, 2003;Harris, Schoneman, & Carrera, 2002;Koenig, Ford, George, Blazer, & Meador, 1993;Koenig, George, Blazer, Pritchett, & Meador, 1993;Miller & Kelley, 2005;Oman & Thoresen, 2005;Pfeifer & Waelty, 1999), no relationship between religiousness and clinical judgments of anxiety (Koenig, 1998(Koenig, , 2005 . Sanderson, Vandenberg, and Paese (1999) found when 67 mental health professionals were asked to rate 18 case vignettes on their degree of mental health, clinicians did not make judgments based on the religious content of the vignettes.…”

“…Literature reviews on religion and mental health (e.g., Davis, Kerr, & Kurpius, 2003;Harris, Schoneman, & Carrera, 2002;Koenig, Ford, George, Blazer, & Meador, 1993;Koenig, George, Blazer, Pritchett, & Meador, 1993;Pfeifer & Waelty, 1999) have found a small positive correlation between anxiety and religion, suggesting people with anxiety disorders are more religious than other people, though there is little evidence to support the converse -religious people are not necessarily more susceptible to anxiety. Religious struggle has been shown to be associated with elevated mortality rates (Oman & Thoresen, 2005).…”

Spirituality and Dignity of Thai Adolescents Living with HIV

“…Having a purpose in life, goal setting and achieving the goal have been identified as an essential attributes of spirituality for people worldwide (Davis et al 2003;Weathers et al 2015). By fostering hope for a better life, this may produce more effort toward positive expectations for the future, and promote prosocial moral behavior (Machell et al 2015).…”

Workplace spirituality and job satisfaction

“…Meaning and purpose in life have been positively correlated with work motivation and positive work attitudes (Sargent, 1973), which include aspects such as job satisfaction and organizational commitment. The importance of meaning in life as an important facet of workplace spirituality has consistently been found to correlate with positive work outcomes such as positive work attitudes (Neck & Milliman, 1994), intrinsic job satisfaction (Davis et al, 2003;De Klerk et al, 2006) and career commitment and goal orientation (De Klerk et al, 2006). Milliman et al (2003) report a positive association between spirituality and employee job outcomes, such as organizational commitment, an individual ' s intention to quit, intrinsic work satisfaction, job involvement, and organization-based self-esteem.…”