INFLUENCE OF RELIGIOUS / SPIRITUAL ORIENTATION ON HEALTH OF ROMAN CATHOLIC AND UNITY CHURCH MEMBERS

Abstract

A previous study has demonstrated that religious beliefs that depicted God as a punishing deity were associated with worse mental health than those representing God as a collaborative partner (Koenig, Pargament, and Nielsen, 1998). In this study that explored the relationship of the type of religious/spiritual orientation to health, the Zung Depression Scale, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, the Symptom Index, the Religious Life Inventory, and a Subject Background Self-Report Questionnaire were administered once to 102 Roman Catholic and 103 Unity volunteer church members. Study participants responded to the written self-report measurements: 1) to determine if there were differences between the two faith groups in regard to anxiety, depression, and overall health symptoms; 2) to determine if the groups were different in their ways of being religious, as measured by the RLI; and 3) to determine if different ways of being religious are predictors of health.