Role of Religious Attendance and Identity Conflict in Psychological Well-being

Abstract

A sample of individuals who identified as gay or lesbian were administered measures of church attendance, their religious organization's view of homosexuality, perceived conflict between religious faith identity and sexual orientation identity, social support, depression, and generalized anxiety. Among participants who rated their church as rejecting of homosexuality, greater frequency of attendance was related to a higher incidence of GAD symptoms, but not depression. No correlation was found for those attending accepting faith communities. Those who attend rejecting faith communities attended services less often, experienced greater identity conflict, and reported significantly less social support than those of the Accepted group. Regression analyses indicated that identity conflict and social support did not fully account for the relationship between attendance and GAD symptoms. Overall, findings from the current study support previous suggestions that participation in conservative or rejecting religious communities may adversely affect the emotional well-being of GL individuals.

Religious Faith, Homosexuality, and Psychological Well-Being: A Theoretical and Empirical Review

“…Religious communities are also often a source of social support and offer opportunities for involvement in various social and community activities (Koenig, 2009;Hamblin & Gross, 2011). Unfortunately, as noted above, most denominations within the Christian and Jewish traditions have been unaccepting of homosexuality.…”

“…They further suggest that spirituality may be important in the lives of gay and lesbian individuals regardless of whether they attend formal religious communities. Hamblin and Gross (2011) explored the relationships between church attendance and psychological well-being among individuals attending rejecting or accepting faith-based communities. A sample of individuals who identified as gay or lesbian responded to questions regarding their religious affiliation and behavior, their religious organization's view of homosexuality, and conflict between religious faith and sexual orientation identities.…”

A moderated mediation model of minority stress and resilience factors in sexual minority Christian college students : comparison between PROCESS and SEM.

“…Sexual identity and religious identity integration was assessed by adapting a scale used within a previous study and may not have accurately measured the desired construct. Specifically, this measure was constructed with items used to measure sexual and spiritual identity integration in two previous studies (Dahl & Galliher, 2009;Hamblin & Gross, 2011). Using the data collected in this study, the internal consistency for this variable was questionable (α =.69).…”

“…This three-item scale is a composite measure combining several items used by previous researchers to assess conflict between sexual and spiritual identities (Dahl & Galliher, 2009;Hamblin & Gross, 2011). An example of questions on this measure is "To what extent have you combined your sexual orientation and your religious beliefs?"…”

“…The items are rated on 5-point Likert scale, with a higher rating reflecting higher levels of spiritual and sexual identity integration. This measure is constructed by the researcher utilizing items used to measure sexual and spiritual identity integration in two previous studies (Dahl & Galliher, 2009;Hamblin & Gross, 2011). As a result, there is no current reliability and validity information on this measure.…”