Shahabi Leila, Powell Lynda H, Musick Marc A, Pargament Kenneth I, Thoresen Carl E, Williams David, Underwood Lynn, Ory Marcia A
Department of Preventive Medicine, Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center, Chicago, IL 60612, USA.
Ann Behav Med. 2002 Winter;24(1):59-68. doi: 10.1207/S15324796ABM2401_07.
To advance knowledge in the study of spirituality and physical health, we examined sociodemographic, behavioral, and attitudinal correlates of self-perceptions of spirituality. Participants were a nationally representative sample of 1,422 adult respondents to the 1998 General Social Survey. They were asked, among other things, to rate themselves on the depth of their spirituality and the depth of their religiousness. Results indicated that, after adjustment for religiousness, self-perceptions of spirituality were positively correlated with being female (r = .07, p < .01), having a higher education (r = .12, p < .001), and having no religion (r = .10, p < .001) and inversely correlated with age (r = -.06, p < .05) and being Catholic (r = -.08, p < .01). After adjustment for these sociodemographic factors, self-perceptions of spirituality were associated with high levels of religious or spiritual activities (range in correlations = .12-.38, all p < .001), low cynical mistrust, and low political conservatism (both r = -.08, p < .01). The population was divided into 4 groups based on their self-perceptions of degree of spirituality and degree of religiousness. The spiritual and religious group had a higherfrequency of attending services, praying, meditating, reading the Bible, and daily spiritual experience than any of the other 3 groups (all differences p < .05) and had less distress and less mistrust than the religious-only group (p < .05 for both). However, they were also more intolerant than either of the nonreligious groups (p < .05 for both) and similar on intolerance to the religious-only group. We conclude that sociodemographicfactors could confound any observed association between spirituality and health and should be controlled. Moreover, individuals who perceive themselves to be both spiritual and religious may be at particularly low risk for morbidity and mortality based on their good psychological status and ongoing restorative activities.
为了推动灵性与身体健康研究方面的知识进展，我们考察了灵性自我认知的社会人口学、行为及态度相关因素。参与者是来自1998年综合社会调查的1422名成年受访者的全国代表性样本。除其他问题外，他们被要求对自己灵性的深度和宗教信仰的深度进行评分。结果表明，在对宗教信仰进行调整后，灵性的自我认知与女性身份呈正相关（r = 0.07，p < 0.01）、与受过高等教育呈正相关（r = 0.12，p < 0.001）、与无宗教信仰呈正相关（r = 0.10，p < 0.001），与年龄呈负相关（r = -0.06，p < 0.05）、与天主教徒身份呈负相关（r = -0.08，p < 0.01）。在对这些社会人口学因素进行调整后，灵性的自我认知与高水平的宗教或灵性活动相关（相关系数范围 = 0.12 - 0.38，所有p < 0.001）、与低愤世嫉俗的不信任感相关、与低政治保守主义相关（两者r = -0.08，p < 0.01）。根据他们对灵性程度和宗教信仰程度的自我认知，将人群分为4组。灵性与宗教组参加宗教仪式、祈祷、冥想、阅读《圣经》以及日常灵性体验的频率高于其他3组中的任何一组（所有差异p < 0.05），且比仅信宗教组的痛苦和不信任感更少（两者p < 0.05）。然而，他们也比两个无宗教信仰组更不宽容（两者p < 0.05），在不宽容程度上与仅信宗教组相似。我们得出结论，社会人口学因素可能会混淆任何观察到的灵性与健康之间的关联，应加以控制。此外，那些认为自己既有灵性又有宗教信仰的个体，基于其良好的心理状态和持续的恢复性活动，发病和死亡风险可能特别低。
