Sexual Health in Relation to Religiosity and Spirituality (original) (raw)
Spirituality, religion, and health
American Psychologist, 2003
The investigation of spiritual/religious factors in health is clearly warranted and clinically relevant. This special section explores the persistent predictive relationship between religious variables and health, and its implications for future research and practice. The section reviews epidemiological evidence linking religiousness to morbidity and mortality, possible biological pathways linking spirituality/ religiousness to health, and advances in the assessment of spiritual/religious variables in research and practice. This introduction provides an overview of this field of research and addresses 3 related methodological issues: definitions of terms, approaches to statistical control, and criteria used to judge the level of supporting evidence for specific hypotheses. The study of spirituality and health is a true frontier for psychology and one with high public interest.
Spirituality, Religion, and Health An Emerging Research Field
The investigation of spiritual/religious factors in health is clearly warranted and clinically relevant. This special section explores the persistent predictive relationship between religious variables and health, and its implications for future research and practice. The section reviews epidemiological evidence linking religiousness to morbidity and mortality, possible biological pathways linking spirituality/ religiousness to health, and advances in the assessment of spiritual/religious variables in research and practice. This introduction provides an overview of this field of research and addresses 3 related methodological issues: definitions of terms, approaches to statistical control, and criteria used to judge the level of supporting evidence for specific hypotheses. The study of spirituality and health is a true frontier for psychology and one with high public interest.
American Psychologist, 2003
Empirical studies have identified significant links between religion and spirituality and health. The reasons for these associations, however, are unclear. Typically, religion and spirituality have been measured by global indices (e.g., frequency of church attendance, self-rated religiousness and spirituality) that do not specify how or why religion and spirituality affect health. The authors highlight recent advances in the delineation of religion and spirituality concepts and measures theoretically and functionally connected to health. They also point to areas for growth in religion and spirituality conceptualization and measurement. Through measures of religion and spirituality more conceptually related to physical and mental health (e.g., closeness to God, religious orientation and motivation, religious support, religious struggle), psychologists are discovering more about the distinctive contributions of religiousness and spirituality to health and well-being.
Trends in the Scientific Study of Religion, Spirituality, and Health: 1965–2000
Journal of Religion and Health, 2006
The present study examined the degree to which interest in religion, spirituality, and health has changed in psychology and the behavioral sciences over the past few decades. To accomplish this, searches were conducted on the PsycINFO database between the years 1965 and 2000. Three basic searches were conducted combining the word ''health'' with the following search terms: 1. (religion OR religious OR religiosity) NOT (spiritual OR spirituality); 2. (spiritual OR spirituality) NOT (religion OR religious OR religiosity); and 3. (religion OR religious OR religiosity) AND (spiritual OR spirituality). The rate per 100,000 articles was then calculated for each of the three search-terms: religion, spirituality, religion and spirituality. A significant upward trend across years was found for the rate of articles dealing with spirituality, r(34) = .95, p < .001, and religion and spirituality, r(34) = .86, p < .001. A significant downward trend was found for articles that only addressed religion, r(34) =).64, p < .001. The consequences of these trends are discussed.
Understanding Religious Variations in Sexuality and Sexual Health
In this chapter, we provide an overview and critical examination of published research concerning the impact of religious involvement on the outcomes of sexuality and sexual health across the life course. We take a broad approach, focusing on a variety of important topics, including sexual behavior, sexual health education, abortion attitudes and behavior, HIV/AIDS, attitudes toward gays and lesbians, and the lived experiences of sexual minorities. In the future, researchers should (1) employ more comprehensive measures of religious involvement, (2) investigate understudied outcomes related to sexuality and sexual health, (3) explore mechanisms linking religion, sexuality, and sexual health, (4) establish subgroup variations in the impact of religious involvement, and (5) formally test alternative explanations like personality selection and social desirability. Research along these lines would certainly contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of religious variations in sexuality and sexual health across the life course.
Measuring Multiple Dimensions of Religion and Spirituality for Health Research
Research on Aging, 2003
Progress in studying the relationship between religion and health has been hampered by the absence of an adequate measure of religiousness and spirituality. This article reports on the conceptual and empirical development of an instrument to measure religiousness and spirituality, intended explicitly for studies of health. It is multidimensional to allow investigation of multiple possible mechanisms of effect, brief enough to be included in clinical or epidemiological surveys, inclusive of both traditional religiousness and noninstitutionally based spirituality, and appropriate for diverse Judeo-Christian populations. The measure may be particularly useful for studies of health in elderly populations in which religious involvement is higher. The measure was tested in the nationally representative 1998 General Social Survey ( N = 1,445). Nine dimensions have indices with moderate-to-good internal consistency, and there are three single-item domains. Analysis by age and sex shows that...
Social Science & Medicine 63: 843-845, 2006.
Recent years have seen increasing recognition paid to the relation of religiousness/spirituality (R/S) to health care and research. This has led to the development of more inclusive and trans-culturally validated measurements of R/S. This paper comments on the WHOQOL SRPB Group's “A cross-cultural study of spirituality, religion, and personal beliefs as components of quality of life” (62: 6, 2005, 1486–1497), a recently published paper in Social Science & Medicine, and illustrates a possible problem in the measurement of R/S, especially as related to the study of mental health outcomes. Some scales have included questions about psychological well-being, satisfaction, connectedness with others, hopefulness, meaning and purpose in life, or altruistic values as part of their measure of R/S. These questions are really tapping indicators of mental health, and should not be included in the definition of R/S itself. Otherwise, tautology is the result, and it should not be surprising that such measures of R/S (defined by questions tapping mental health) are related to mental health outcomes.
A COMPARATIVE CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY ON IMPACT OF SPIRITUALITY AND ITS ASSOCIATED factors.pdf
BACKGROUND Since the inclusion of spiritual health within WHO's purview, a number of other significant organisations have also attended to spirituality and incorporated reference to it in key documents, including the United Nations action plan Agenda 21 which recognises the right of individuals to "healthy physical, mental, and spiritual development”. Studies conducted on common people to analyse the effect of spiritual activities practised by them in their day-to-day life on their health are very few. The purpose of this study is to assess the relationship of spirituality and health among randomly selected common people of Gwalior region irrespective of their sex, religion, occupation, etc. and to contribute to the vast pool of similar researches conducted worldwide to determine scientific phenomenal value of spirituality. MATERIALS AND METHODS This was a comparative cross-sectional descriptive type study with qualitative components, carried out on individuals in the age group 40-60 years residing in Gwalior region for 1 year (01 Oct ’15 to 30 Sep ‘16). The 200 subjects were divided into two groups of 100 individuals each - one practising any spiritual activity for at least 10 years were grouped into 'Group 1' and others not practising any such activity were grouped into `Group 2'. Percentages, proportion, graphs, tables, Odds ratio and other statistical methods were used. RESULTS In the study, it was found that Females inculcate spiritual practices in their day-to-day life more in comparison to males. People doing spiritual practice for at least 10 years belong to good or moderate health status & enjoy other benefits more than those not doing any such practice. CONCLUSION When an individual is tormented with stress, lifestyle syndromes, disorders and diseases; there is a profound need to integrate wholesome preventive, diagnostic and rehabilitative health interventions inclusive of spiritual health. This can be practised by clinics, hospitals, psychotherapeutic centres, embracing good spiritual practices for better health outcome, higher quality of life and reduction of economic burden on governments. These practices, if done with the intension to prevent chronic life style diseases in high risk patients, can give better results than any other medical intervention as "PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE”.
Typologies of Religiousness/Spirituality: Implications for Health and Well-Being
Journal of Religion and Health, 2013
The purpose of this study was to develop empirically based typologies of religiousness/spirituality (R/S) and to determine whether the typologies were related to health and well-being. The study used a nationally representative sample of adults (N = 1,431). Using latent profile analysis, typologies were derived based on religious service attendance, prayer, positive religious coping, and daily spiritual experiences. Multivariate statistical tests were used to examine cluster differences in health and wellbeing. A four-class model was identified: highly religious, moderately religious, somewhat religious, and minimally religious or non-religious. The four classes were distinctively different in psychological well-being, in that the highly religious class was most likely to be happy and satisfied with finances and least likely to be psychologically distressed.