Mental Health, Religion & Culture 

About: Mental Health, Religion & Culture is an academic journal published by Taylor & Francis. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Mental health & Religiosity. It has an ISSN identifier of 1367-4676. Over the lifetime, 1364 publications have been published receiving 25315 citations. The journal is also known as: Mental health, religion and culture.

Religion, spirituality, and posttraumatic growth: a systematic review

Abstract: A search of the published literature identified 11 empirical studies that reported links between religion, spirituality, and posttraumatic growth. A review of these 11 studies produced three main findings. First, these studies show that religion and spirituality are usually, although not always, beneficial to people in dealing with the aftermath of trauma. Second, that traumatic experiences can lead to a deepening of religion or spirituality. Third, that positive religious coping, religious openness, readiness to face existential questions, religious participation, and intrinsic religiousness are typically associated with posttraumatic growth. Important directions for future research are suggested that centre on the need for more fine-grained analysis of religion and spirituality variables, together with longitudinal research designs, that allow more detailed exploration of the links between religion, spirituality, and posttraumatic growth.

Meditation and attention: A comparison of the effects of concentrative and mindfulness meditation on sustained attention

Abstract: The performance of concentrative and mindfulness meditators on a test of sustained attention (Wilkins' counting test) was compared with controls. Both groups of meditators demonstrated superior performance on the test of sustained attention in comparison with controls, and long-term meditators were superior to short-term meditators. Mindfulness meditators showed superior performance in comparison with concentrative meditators when the stimulus was unexpected but there was no difference between the two types of meditators when the stimulus was expected. The results are discussed in relation to the attentional mechanisms involved in the two types of meditation and implications drawn for mental health.

Happiness, health, and religiosity: Significant relations

Abstract: The aim of the present work was to test for an association between, and gender differences in, happiness, physical health, mental health, and religiosity. Four separate self-rating scales of these variables with good retest reliability were used. The sample comprised 2,210 male (n = 1,056) and female (n = 1,154) volunteer Kuwaiti undergraduates. Males had a significantly higher self-rating mean score of happiness and mental health than females, while females had a significantly higher religiosity mean score than their male counterparts. All the inter-correlations between the four self-ratings were significant and positive. They yielded one high loaded factor. Though the loadings were all high (>0.51), the ratings for happiness and mental health had the highest loadings (>0.82). Multiple regression revealed that the main predictor of happiness was mental health. Mental health accounted for 60% of the variance in predicting happiness, while religiosity accounted for around 15% of the variance in predicting ...

Religiosity and its association with happiness, purpose in life, and self-actualisation

Abstract: The aim of the present work was to test for an association between religiosity and happiness. One hundred and one undergraduate students completed the Francis Scale of Attitude Towards Christianity, the Depression-Happiness Scale (DHS), the Oxford Happiness Inventory (OHI), the Purpose in Life Test (PIL), and the Index of Self-Actualisation (ISA). It was found that higher scores on the Francis Scale were associated with higher scores on the DHS, the OHI, the PIL, and the ISA, providing evidence for a positive association between religiosity and these facets of subjective well-being. However, partial correlations suggested that the association between religiosity and happiness is a function of purpose in life.

Religiosity and life satisfaction across nations

Abstract: This paper investigates the relationship between religiosity and life satisfaction in 79 nations using World Values Survey data Extant literature analyzes religiosity and life satisfaction at person level But religiosity is an attribute of both, persons and societies To solve methodological problems evident in previous work a random coefficient multilevel model is employed to account for the fact that individuals are nested within countries This study shows that the relationship between religiosity and life satisfaction is bimodal Religious people tend to be either very satisfied or dissatisfied with life The relationship between religiosity and life satisfaction is also two-dimensional Forms of religiosity that promote social capital predict high life satisfaction People have so called “need to belong” and religion helps to satisfy it On the other hand, forms of religiosity that do not promote social capital do not predict high life satisfaction Religiosity is also context-dependent Religious