Examining the relation of religion and spirituality to subjective well-being across national cultures.

TLDR

Religion and spirituality are generally linked to higher subjective well‑being, though previous studies have reported inconsistent findings. The study aims to determine how measurement differences and national cultural contexts shape the religion‑well‑being relationship, and to encourage future research that accounts for this variability. The authors analyzed World Values Survey data (1981–2008) to examine associations between life satisfaction, happiness, and various measures of religion and spirituality across countries. They found that spiritual practice is positively related to well‑being in cultures with strong religious socialization but negatively related in less socialized societies, that hostility toward religious groups strengthens the positive link between belief in religious leaders and well‑being, and that different religious/spiritual measures relate differently to well‑being depending on national context.

Abstract

Religion and spirituality have often been associated with the higher subjective well-being of individuals, but departures from this relationship have also been noted in previous research. We identified two important issues that may affect this relationship: the various measurements of religion, spirituality, and subjective well-being used, and the national cultural contexts in which the relationship is examined. Using the World Values Survey (World Values Survey Association, 2009, World Values Survey: 1981–2008. Official Aggregate, Version 20090901, ASEP/JDS, Madrid, Spain, http://www.wvsevsdb .com/wvs/WVSitalicData.jsp), we found that both life satisfaction and happiness were positively associated with many measures of religion and spirituality, except for that of spiritual practice in different national contexts. In national cultures in which socialization for religious faith is more common, spiritual practice was positively related to subjective well-being, whereas in cultures where religious socialization is less prevalent, the relationship between spiritual practice and subjective well-being was reversed. In nations where social hostility toward religious groups is more intense, the positive association between belief in the authority of religious leaders and subjective well-being was stronger than in nations where such hostility was weaker. Different measures of religion and spirituality thus have varying relationships with measures of subjective well-being in different national contexts. Future research must accommodate this variability in conceptualizing the interface between cultural contexts and the psychology of religion and spirituality.