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Religion and Health: Anxiety, Religiosity, Meaning of Life and Mental Health

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Abstract

We examined the association among anxiety, religiosity, meaning of life and mental health in a nonclinical sample from a Chinese society. Four hundred fifty-one Taiwanese adults (150 males and 300 females) ranging in age from 17 to 73 years (M = 28.9, SD = 11.53) completed measures of Beck Anxiety Inventory, Medical Outcomes Study Health Survey, Perceived Stress Scale, Social Support Scale, and Personal Religiosity Scale (measuring religiosity and meaning of life). Meaning of life has a significant negative correlation with anxiety and a significant positive correlation with mental health and religiosity; however, religiosity does not correlate significantly anxiety and mental health after controlling for demographic measures, social support and physical health. Anxiety explains unique variance in mental health above meaning of life. Meaning of life was found to partially mediate the relationship between anxiety and mental health. These findings suggest that benefits of meaning of life for mental health can be at least partially accounted for by the effects of underlying anxiety.

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Acknowledgments

This project was supported by a grant from the Kaohsiung Medical University Research Foundation (KMU-Q099033) and the National Science Council (100-2410-H-037-003-MY2).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate Institute of Counseling Psychology and Rehabilitation Counseling, National Kaohsiung Normal University, No. 116, Heping 1st Road, Kaohsiung, 802, Taiwan

    Yung-Jong Shiah

  2. Department of Applied Foreign Languages, Chienkuo Technology University, No. 1, Chiehshou North Road, Changhua, 500, Taiwan

    Frances Chang

  3. Department of Counseling and Clinical Psychology, National Dong Hwa University, No. 1, Sec. 2, Da Hsueh Road, Shoufeng, Hualien, 97401, Taiwan

    Shih-Kuang Chiang

  4. Department of Psychology, Kaohsiung Medical University, No. 100, Shiquan 1st Road, Kaohsiung, 807, Taiwan

    I-Mei Lin

  5. Department of Psychology, Chung Yuan Christian University, No. 200, Chung Pei Road, Chungli, 32023, Taiwan

    Wai-Cheong Carl Tam

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  1. Yung-Jong Shiah
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  2. Frances Chang
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  3. Shih-Kuang Chiang
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Correspondence to Yung-Jong Shiah.

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Shiah, YJ., Chang, F., Chiang, SK. et al. Religion and Health: Anxiety, Religiosity, Meaning of Life and Mental Health. J Relig Health 54, 35–45 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-013-9781-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-013-9781-3

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