Is the influence of religiousness on fearful, depressive and somatic symptoms and psychic traumatization overestimated? A representative cross-sectional study

Abstract

Objectives: The aim of this study is to prove if religious faith, spirituality and religious praxis are joined with lower depression, anxiety and physical pain-level and if subjects with traumatic experiences report more spirituality. Methods: In this consecutive study, 2508 adults of a representative sample in Germany were interviewed about religious faith and spirituality in relation to depression, anxiety, physical disorders as well as traumatic experiences. Results: Unlike our hypotheses people who are charged with mental (PHQ-4; Löwe et al. 2010) or physical disorders (GBB_8; Kliem et al. 2017) report more spirituality and more private religious/spiritual praxis than people without mental or physical problems. As expected people with traumatic experiences in their childhood (CTS; Grabe et al. 2012) describe significantly more spirituality than people without these experiences. Conclusions: Other than expected people with more mental or physical disorders report more spirituality and more private religious/spiritual praxis. It is to discuss if spirituality is less a protective factor for mental or physical disorders than disorders activate to look for spirituality and private religious/spiritual praxis.