Psychology of Religion and Spirituality

Religious stewardship and pro-environmental action: The mediating roles of environmental guilt and anger.
Past research has found that stewardship belief can motivate pro-environmentalism among religious individuals. The present study investigates the emotional pathways linking religious stewardship belief and pro-environmental policy support. In an online experiment conducted with Christians in the United States (N = 604), we experimentally primed stewardship belief (N = 195) using a video that highlighted the human responsibility to care for God’s creations. We also included a control condition (N = 206) and a religion condition (N = 203), which presented a more generic religious message. As demonstrated in a mediation model, the stewardship manipulation (vs. control condition) increased feelings of guilt and anger toward environmental issues, which in turn increased support for pro-environmental policies (i.e., behavioral outcome of petition signing). Based on bootstrapped confidence intervals, the indirect effects of the stewardship prime on environmental policy support via guilt and anger were significant. In contrast, the religion condition had no significant effect on policy support. These findings contribute to explaining how religious people, tasked with the duty of stewardship, may be emotionally driven to engage with environmental issues. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
The Questionnaire God Representations for clinical and scientific use in the context of mental health care (QGR-17).
In this article, we present a new version of the Questionnaire God Representations (QGR), the QGR-17. This version is particularly aimed for use in scientific studies among psychiatric patients and applications in a clinical context, such as routine outcome measurement and the monitoring of existential recovery during treatment. We calculated norm scores and examined psychometric properties of the QGR-17, for both a general population and a population of people who receive mental health care. We calculated norm scores (based on stanine scores) and analyzed internal consistency, comparative and structural validity (Study 1, N = 1,788). Convergent and divergent validity were examined with correlation analyses with psychopathology, vitality and hope/meaning in life, and identity as existential factors (Study 2, N = 1,366). The results show that internal consistencies of the QGR-17 scales are adequate to good and that it has structural validity. The average item scores of each QGR-17 scale resemble the scales of the total QGR. We found that the positively valenced aspects of God representations were predominantly related to higher levels of vitality and the existential constructs of identity and hope/meaning in life, while the negatively valenced aspects were related to higher levels of psychopathology, less hope/meaning in life, and more negative identity scores. Taken together, these findings provide support for the QGR-17 as a relatively brief measure of God representations and its potential to address the positive or negative relationships of religion/spirituality with mental health in treatment. Implications for clinical work are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
The social pain of religious deidentification: Religious dones conceal their identity and feel less belonging in religious cultures.
Past research indicates that individuals who were formerly religious (religious dones) and individuals who were never religious (religious nones) differ on important psychological and behavioral characteristics. Other research demonstrates that religious and nonreligious individuals experience social identity threat; however, this research has only been conducted in the United States. Thus, we examined social identity threat among currently religious, formerly religious, and never religious individuals across three cultural contexts: religious Western (United States), secular Western (the Netherlands), and Eastern (Hong Kong). Two studies (N = 4,697) drawn from three countries (Hong Kong, the Netherlands, and United States) examined the degree to which formerly religious individuals (i.e., religious dones) conceal their identity, relative to currently religious and never religious individuals. In Study 1 (N = 3,071), we found that religious dones report less public–private identity overlap—that is, greater identity concealment—in a religious culture (i.e., United States). In Study 2 (N = 1,626), we replicated these results and extended the findings to belongingness. In addition, belongingness mediated the association between religious identity and identity concealment among U.S. participants. These results suggest social costs of religious deidentification in religious settings: religious dones feel less belonging and consequently conceal their identity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
The factor structure of the Duke University Religion Index: Continuing the conversation.
The purpose of this psychometric study was to continue the conversation among Psychology of Religion and Spirituality researchers regarding the optimal factor structure of the widely used Duke University Religion Index (DUREL). Single-factor, two-factor, and three-factor models of the DUREL are compared in two samples of previously unstudied populations: U.S. community-dwelling adults and U.S. community-dwelling older adults. Special attention is given to adjusting estimation methods for multivariate nonnormality. A stratified random sample of 404 U.S. adults and a convenience sample of 428 community-dwelling older adults completed the DUREL. Based on previous theoretical and empirical work, a series of confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to compare single-factor, two-factor, and three-factor models of the data in both samples. The two- and three-factor models provided the best representation of the underlying structure of the DUREL in both samples. A two- or three-factor measurement model of the DUREL is recommended for use in structural models with U.S. adult and older adult samples. A caveat regarding the use of a three-factor model is discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Meaning making enhances gratitude to God: The importance of spiritual appraisals.
We sought to investigate whether making meaning from the COVID-19 pandemic might enhance positive spiritual and nonspiritual interpretations of the pandemic and in turn whether these appraisals would enhance gratitude to God. Participants (N = 272) were randomly allocated to one of three writing conditions: control, writing about their experience of the COVID-19 pandemic, or writing about finding meaning (i.e., how they have grown, what they learned) from the pandemic. After writing, respondents reported current emotions and pandemic-relevant appraisals, followed by several exploratory measures. A two-way interaction between writing condition and emotion (F[4, 524] = 2.54, p = .04) indicated that both general gratitude and gratitude to God were enhanced in the meaning condition, but gratitude to humans was not. Both spiritual and nonspiritual benefit appraisals were greater in the meaning condition (F[2, 261] = 7.85, p <.001), and spiritual appraisals mediated enhanced gratitude to God. Analyses also indicated that spiritual benefit appraisals were unique to gratitude to God. Furthermore, gratitude to God was uniquely associated with variables related to spiritual well-being such as nearness to God and one’s heartfelt experience of a loving God. Making meaning from the pandemic enhanced gratitude to God, and spiritual benefit appraisals uniquely predicted gratitude to God. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Establishing the temporal relationship between religious commitment, sexual identity struggles, and religious struggles among sexual minorities.
Conclusions about the temporal relationship between religiousness and both religious and sexual identity struggles are frequently made in the absence of longitudinal data. The present study examines the temporal relationship between religious identification, sexual identity struggles, and religious struggles. Participants were 132 Latter-day Saint sexual minorities who provided data at two timepoints, 2 years apart. We employed two cross-lagged panel models, one focusing on religious struggles and religious commitment and the other focusing on sexual identity struggles and religious commitment, to understand the temporal relationships between these variables. Cross-lagged panel models suggested that interpersonal religious struggles and sexual identity uncertainty at Time 1 were negatively related to religious commitment at Time 2. Similarly, religious commitment at Time 1 was related to decreased sexual identity affirmation and increased religious doubt at Time 2. Although there is some degree of reciprocity to the relationship between religious/sexual identity struggles and religious commitment, certain struggles (interpersonal religious struggles, identity uncertainty) predicted later decreases in religious commitment, and religious commitment predicted an increase in certain types of struggles (religious doubt, lack of sexual identity affirmation). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Effects of prayer frequency and orientations on distress and well-being: Cross-sectional and longitudinal evidence from Indonesian adults.
Research on the benefits of prayer have mainly focused on frequency and often neglect other aspects of prayer. In this Brief Research Report, we reported independent and joint effects of prayer frequency and two prayer orientations on distress and well-being variables. Data included a cross-sectional national sample (n = 579) and a three-wave longitudinal convenience sample (n = 595) of Indonesian adults. Participants responded to questionnaires on prayer frequency, orientations (prayer for comfort and connection), and eight distress and well-being variables. Longitudinal results evidenced a joint effect of prayer frequency and orientations. When oriented by an intention for connection or comfort, prayer had the potential to mitigate subsequent suffering, enhance subsequent meaning and purpose, and promote subsequent character and virtue. The study calls for an examination of prayer variables that extend beyond mere frequency and an expanded framework of well-being when exploring potential benefits of prayer. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)

Psychology of Religion and Spirituality - Vol 16, Iss 3