Examining the links between spiritual struggles and symptoms of psychopathology in a national sample

Abstract

The present study investigated the relationship between spiritual struggles and various types of psychopathology symptoms in individuals who had and had not suffered from a recent illness. Participants completed self-report measures of religious variables and symptoms of psychopathology. Spiritual struggles were assessed by a measure of negative religious coping. As predicted, negative religious coping was significantly linked to various forms of psychopathology, including anxiety, phobic anxiety, depression, paranoid ideation, obsessive-compulsiveness, and somatization, after controlling for demographic and religious variables. In addition, the relationship between negative religious coping and anxiety and phobic anxiety was stronger for individuals who had experienced a recent illness. These results have implications for assessments and interventions targeting spiritual struggles, especially in medical settings.