Items of Interest November 12, 2012 Issue

Spirituality linked to better mental health

“Spirituality correlates to better mental health regardless of religion, say MU Researchers”
© 2012 Curators of the University of Missouri. All rights reserved. August 20, 2012

Spirituality often enhances health—particularly mental health—regardless of a person’s faith, according to University of Missouri researchers.

“In many ways, the results of our study support the idea that spirituality functions as a personality trait,” said Dan Cohen, assistant teaching professor of religious studies at MU and one of the co-authors of the study. “With increased spirituality, people reduce their sense of self and feel a greater sense of oneness and connectedness with the rest of the universe.”

The MU study used the results of three surveys to determine if correlations existed among participants’ self-reported mental and physical health, personality factors, and spirituality in Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, Catholics, and Protestants. Across all five faiths, a greater degree of spirituality was related to better mental health, specifically lower levels of neuroticism and greater extraversion. Forgiveness was the only spiritual trait predictive of mental health after personality variables were considered.

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