What Mediates the Relationship Between Religious Service Attendance and Aspects of Well-Being?

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• 作者：Patrick R. Steffen ; Kevin S. Masters ; Scott Baldwin
• 关键词：Religious service attendance ; Intrinsic religiosity ; Mediation
• 刊名：Journal of Religion and Health
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：February 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：56
• 期：1
• 页码：158-170
• 全文大小：
• 刊物类别：Behavioral Science
• 刊物主题：Public Health; Clinical Psychology; Religious Studies, general; Aging;
• 出版者：Springer US
• ISSN：1573-6571
• 卷排序：56

文摘

Religious service attendance predicts increased well-being across a number of studies. It is not clear, however, whether this relationship is due to religious factors such as intrinsic religiosity or due to nonreligious factors such as social support or socially desirable responding. The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between religious service attendance and well-being while simultaneously examining intrinsic religiosity, social support, and socially desirable responding as potential mediators of the relationship. A sample of 855 participants (71 % female, average age 19.5) completed questionnaires assessing religiosity, social support, socially desirable responding, and well-being. Path models were estimated using maximum likelihood estimation to analyze the data. Intrinsic religiosity was the strongest mediator of the relationship between religious service attendance and depressive and anxiety symptoms. This suggests that the mental health benefits of religious service attendance are not simply the result of increased social support or a certain response style on questionnaires; rather, it appears that the relationship is at least partly the result of people trying to live their religion in their daily lives.