Spirituality, religion and health: evidence and research directions
TLDR
The strongest evidence exists for the association between religious attendance and mortality, with higher levels of attendance predictive of a strong, consistent and often graded reduction in mortality risk.Abstract:
Levels of spirituality and religious beliefs and behaviour are relatively high in Australia, although lower than those in the United States. There is mounting scientific evidence of a positive association between religious involvement and multiple indicators of health. The strongest evidence exists for the association between religious attendance and mortality, with higher levels of attendance predictive of a strong, consistent and often graded reduction in mortality risk. Negative effects of religion on health have also been documented for some aspects of religious beliefs and behaviour and under certain conditions. Health practices and social ties are important pathways by which religion can affect health. Other potential pathways include the provision of systems of meaning and feelings of strength to cope with stress and adversity.read more
Citations
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Linking Religion and Spirituality with Psychological Well-being: Examining Self-actualisation, Meaning in Life, and Personal Growth Initiative
TL;DR: The results confirm the importance of spirituality on psychological well-being, regardless of whether it is experienced through religious participation.
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The short-term stress response – Mother nature’s mechanism for enhancing protection and performance under conditions of threat, challenge, and opportunity
TL;DR: This review aims to provide a conceptual framework and targets for further investigation of mechanisms and conditions under which the protective/adaptive aspects of short-term stress/exercise can be optimized/harnessed, and for developing pharmacological/biobehavioral interventions to enhance health/healing, and mental/cognitive/physical performance.
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Longitudinal relationships of religious worship attendance and spirituality with major depression, anxiety disorders, and suicidal ideation and attempts: findings from the Baltimore epidemiologic catchment area study.
TL;DR: It is suggested that religious attendance is possibly an independent protective factor against suicide attempts.
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Islamic religiosity, subjective well-being, and health
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explored the relationship between Islamic religiosity and satisfaction with a diverse range of life and health domains, in a sample of 2909 participants (1446 males, 1463 females) from Algeria.
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Spiritual Well-Being and Suicidal Ideation Among College Students
TL;DR: This investigation highlighted existential well-being as an important factor associated with lower levels of suicidal ideation among college students, and even after controlling for significant correlates, existentialWell-being remained a significant predictor of suicidal Ideation.
References
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Book
Handbook of Religion and Health
TL;DR: This paper reviewed and discussed the full range of research on religion and a variety of mental and physical health outcomes, and built theoretical models illustrating the various behavioural, psychological, and physiological pathways by which religion might affect health.
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Advances in the conceptualization and measurement of religion and spirituality: Implications for physical and mental health research.
TL;DR: The authors highlight recent advances in the delineation of religion and spirituality concepts and measures theoretically and functionally connected to health and point to areas for areas for growth in Religion and spirituality conceptualization and measurement.
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Spirituality, religion, and health. An emerging research field.
TL;DR: The investigation of spiritual/religious factors in health is clearly warranted and clinically relevant and the persistent predictive relationship between religious variables and health, and its implications for future research and practice are explored.
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Religious coping and psychological adjustment to stress: a meta-analysis.
Gene G. Ano,Erin B. Vasconcelles +1 more
TL;DR: The results of the study generally supported the hypotheses thatpositive and negative forms of religious coping are related to positive and negative psychological adjustment to stress, respectively.
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Religiousness and depression: evidence for a main effect and the moderating influence of stressful life events.
TL;DR: The association between religiousness and depressive symptoms was examined with meta-analytic methods across 147 independent investigations, indicating that greater religiousness is mildly associated with fewer symptoms.