Religiosity and mental health: A critical reevaluation and meta-analysis.

Abstract

For many decades, lassitude and malaise have afflicted the relationship between psychology and religion. Interest and activity in this relationship are now being renewed, and old controversies wi(h new terms are resurfacing. This article reviews the extensive empirical literature on the topic and shows that religiosity is a complex phenomenon with numerous correlates and consequences that defy simple interpretations. A meta-analysis of 24 pertinent studies revealed no support for the preconception that religiousness is necessarily correlated with psychopathology; but it also showed only slightly positive correlates of religion. Sociological and psychiatric reports were more favorable to religion. The data's ambiguities compare with those ambiguities that formerly characterized psychotherapy research. Better specification of concepts and methods of measuring religiosity are alleviating this problem, which suggests that ambiguous results reflect a multidimensional phenomenon that has mixed positive and negative aspects. Averaging such diverse factors generally yields unimpressive findings, whereas using specificity promises clearer and more powerful results. Clinical education, practice, and research need revision so that professionals will be better informed of the evidence, more open to the study of such variables, and more efficacious in their work with persons who approach life from a religious perspective.

Examination of the Relationship Between Perfectionism and Religiosity as Mediated by Psychological Inflexibility

“…On the negative side, religiosity has been associated with depression, anxiety, irrational thoughts, and low self-esteem (Judd, 1999). There are also some studies that have found no evidence of a relationship (Bergin, 1983). Recognition of the role of the adaptive and maladaptive dimensions clarifies the inconsistency in the research and also points to the idea of individual differences in how one interacts with a religion.…”

Religiousness and depression: Evidence for a main effect and the moderating influence of stressful life events.

“…In fact, whereas one would expect most measures of religiousness to have a negative association with depressive symptoms, measures of extrinsic religious motivation and negative religious coping would be expected to have a significant and positive association with depressive symptoms. The clear contrasts found here between intrinsic versus extrinsic religious motivation and positive versus negative religious coping (see Measures of religiousness in Table 3) give emphasis to the conclusions of others (e.g., Bergin, 1983;Burris, 1994;Donahue, 1985;Pargament, 1997;Richards & Bergin, 1997) and strongly suggest that researchers should attend to individuals' specific forms of religious motivation and coping.…”

“…For example, well over 100 measures of religiousness have been published in the professional literature, with the vast majority of these assessing only positive aspects of religiousness (Hill & Hood, 1999). Scholars have long believed that some forms of religiousness are unhealthy (e.g., Bergin, 1983)-more than 100 years ago James (1902) distinguished religiousness as healthy mindedness versus the sick soul-yet research efforts on the negative forms of religiousness have been notably limited. In this meta-analysis, only 31 (21%) of the studies assessed either extrinsic religious motivations or negative religious coping.…”

Intrinsic and extrinsic religiousness: genetic and environmental influences and personality correlates

“…Rel i gi ousness i s a posi ti ve predi ctor of physi cal heal th, 12 a consi stent predi ctor of drug non-i nvol vement i n adul ts 13,53 and adol escents, 14 is related in a compl ex manner to i ssues of prejudi ce and i ntol erance 23,24,29 as w el l as mental heal th 54 and del i nquency. 23,55 It i s cl earl y an i mportant construct, deservi ng of greater attenti on from soci al sci enti sts than i t has recei ved to date.…”