Introduction and objectives
Spirituality and mental health have always been in a very dynamic relationship. One can wonder if
spirituality should be taken out of psychiatry or if psychiatry lost its faith.
Aims
The goal of this research is to analyze how anxiety levels are influenced by religious beliefs and practices in children and adolescents.
Methods
72 respondents participated in our study. They were pupils in the eighth grade at Scoala Generala Horea, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. The exclusion criteria was any psychiatric disorder diagnosed prior to the research.
We used the questionnaire for anxiety, S.T.A.I. - State Trait Anxiety Inventory (Charles D. Spielberger Ph.D., 1970). The questionnaires about religious beliefs, behaviors and personal motivation: SAI -Spiritual Assessment Inventory (Todd W. Hall, Ph.D&Keith J. Edwards, Ph.D, 1996) and two questions from DUREL - Duke University Religion Index (Koenig HG, Meador K, Parkerson G., 1997). These questionnaires are adapted for a monotheist religion.
To analyze the results, we used SPSS, a Business Intelligence software which includes statistical analysis modules, version 17.
Results
The results identified a valid statistical correlation between anxiety levels and the degree of awareness of God in religious practices and beliefs. (Pearson correlation ?0.227, p = 0.05). Depending on the results from SAI questionnaire concerning the level of awareness, we formed 2 groups and we studied the anxiety levels. The analysis of these 2 groups sustained the prior association.
Conclusions
The anxiety levels are lower in children with high degree of spiritual awareness and religious practices and beliefs.
