Psychological Resilience After Cancer via Religion/Spirituality: Spiritual Capital Through a Life Course Lens

Abstract

Religious beliefs and practices are thought to help people confront problems that push the limits of human life. Integrating the life course perspective, we assess whether the accumulation of religiosity ("spiritual capital") between childhood and adulthood had any bearing on its ability to cushion the mental health insults of a cancer diagnosis, factoring in age-at-diagnosis. Using two waves of data from National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (N = 1431), results suggest that stable high religious importance between childhood and adulthood weakened the deleterious mental health consequences of a cancer diagnosis. For individuals under the age of 45, the relationship between a cancer diagnosis and psychological distress was considerably weaker for those reporting stably high or increasing religious importance between childhood and adulthood. We discuss the implications of our results for research at the intersection religion and the life course perspective.

The Role of Islamic Beliefs in Facilitating Acceptance of Cancer Diagnosis

“…Relatedly, couples in our study reported that, according to their beliefs, the occurrence of the illness is predestined, which facilitated their acceptance. It also appears that religious and spiritual beliefs may help to provide meaning to the cancer experience, develop positive attitudes toward suffering, and reduce the risk of depression [ 57 , 58 , 59 ]. Different studies conducted in Saudia Arabia, Iran, Turkey, Malaysia, and Tunisia report that the belief in “Qadr Allah” for Muslims facilitates acceptance of a cancer diagnosis by reminding them that their illness was part of God’s plan [ 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 ].…”

Importance of Religion after Adversity

“…Furthering this literature, religion studies have empirically explored the mechanisms through which religiosity and spirituality strengthen resilience after traumatic experiences such as disasters (Ai et al 2013), adverse conditions (Reutter and Bigatti 2014), challenging life events (Eliassen, Taylor, and Lloyd 2005), and health shocks (Upenieks 2022). The study of religious importance during adverse times has also focused on the challenges in the therapeutic use of religion We contribute to this large multidisciplinary literature by using data on religious importance from over 2 million Americans between 2008 and 2015 to determine whether the relationship between natural disasters and religious importance holds in the context of the United States, which has a substantial emergency management response system in comparison to many other countries (particularly low-and middle-income countries).…”

“…Furthering this literature, religion studies have empirically explored the mechanisms through which religiosity and spirituality strengthen resilience after traumatic experiences such as disasters (Ai et al. 2013), adverse conditions (Reutter and Bigatti 2014), challenging life events (Eliassen, Taylor, and Lloyd 2005), and health shocks (Upenieks 2022). The study of religious importance during adverse times has also focused on the challenges in the therapeutic use of religion (Kwilecki 2004).…”

Religiosity over the Life Course and Flourishing: Are There Educational Differences?

“…A focus on the evolution of religious capital necessarily implies understanding religiosity from a longitudinal perspective as a process of change and development (Hwang et al 2022b; Upenieks 2021). Religious activities and understandings practiced over a lifetime might serve to both increase one's confidence in the truth of their religion as well as strengthening emotional ties to religion and one's religious community.…”