Background

Although religious involvement tends to be associated with improved mental health, additional work is needed to identify the specific aspects of religious practice that are associated with positive mental health outcomes. Our study advances the literature by investigating how two unique forms of religious social support are associated with mental health.

Purpose

We explore whether support received in religious settings from fellow congregants or religious leaders is associated with participants’ mental health. We address questions that are not only of interest to religion scholars, but that may also inform religious leaders and others whose work involves understanding connections between religious factors and psychological outcomes within religious communities.

Methods

We test several hypotheses using original data from the “Mental Health in Congregations Study (2017–2019)”, a survey of Christian and Jewish congregants from South Texas and the Washington DC area (N = 1882). Surveys were collected using both paper and online surveys and included an extensive battery of religious and mental health measures.

Results

Congregant support has more robust direct associations with mental health outcomes than faith leader support. Increased congregant support is significantly associated (p < 0.001) with fewer symptoms of psychological distress (β = − 0.168), anxiety (β = − 0.159), and anger (β = − 0.190), as well as greater life satisfaction (β = 0.269) and optimism (β = 0.283). However, faith leader support moderates these associations such that congregant support is associated with better mental health only in cases where faith leader support is also high. When leader support is low, congregant support and mental health are not associated.

Conclusions and Implications

At the conceptual level, our study adds to an extensive literature on the relationship between religious social support and mental health. Additionally, our work may provide important insights to religious leadership in terms of communications strategies, services, and resources that might enhance overall congregant mental health and well-being.

中文翻译：

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是布道还是唱诗班？教牧支持、会众支持和崇拜者心理健康

背景

尽管宗教参与往往与改善心理健康有关，但还需要做更多的工作来确定与积极的心理健康结果相关的宗教活动的具体方面。我们的研究通过调查两种独特形式的宗教社会支持如何与心理健康相关联来推进文献。

目的

我们探讨在宗教环境中从教友或宗教领袖那里获得的支持是否与参与者的心理健康有关。我们解决的问题不仅是宗教学者感兴趣的，而且也可能为宗教领袖和其他工作涉及理解宗教因素与宗教社区内心理结果之间的联系的人提供信息。

方法

我们使用来自“会众心理健康研究（2017-2019）”的原始数据检验了几个假设，该研究是一项针对南德克萨斯州和华盛顿特区地区（N = 1882）的基督教和犹太教徒的调查。调查是通过纸质和在线调查收集的，包括广泛的宗教和心理健康措施。

结果

与信仰领袖的支持相比，会众的支持与心理健康结果有着更强大的直接联系。会众支持的增加与 (p < 0.001) 心理困扰 ( β  = − 0.168)、焦虑 ( β  = − 0.159) 和愤怒 ( β  = − 0.190) 症状减少以及更高的生活满意度 ( β  = 0.269) 和乐观 ( β  = 0.283)。然而，信仰领袖的支持调节了这些关联，使得只有在信仰领袖的支持也很高的情况下，会众的支持才与更好的心理健康相关。当领导支持率低时，会众支持和心理健康不相关。

结论和启示

在概念层面，我们的研究增加了关于宗教社会支持与心理健康之间关系的广泛文献。此外，我们的工作可能会在沟通策略、服务和资源方面为宗教领袖提供重要见解，这些可能会增强整体会众的心理健康和福祉。