Religiosity and Mental Health

John J. Cecero

While there is a substantial literature that connects religiosity and physical health outcomes, including factors such as heart disease, cholesterol, hypertension, cancer, and mortality, among others, the relationship between religious faith and mental health outcomes may not be as well known among the general public (Plante & Sharma, 2001). At the same time, considering that 80% of the world's population belongs to one particular religious tradition or another, religiosity has become an increasingly popular subject of investigation among mental health researchers and clinicians alike (Plante & Sharma, 2001). One of the chief obstacles to studying religiosity, in both physical and mental health research, has been the conceptualization and measurement of religion and spirituality (Hill & Pargament, 2003). Hill and Hood (1999) reviewed 125 measures of religion and spirituality and identified a range of complex cognitive, emotional, behavioral, interpersonal, and physiological dimensions that compose these constructs. This complexity has made it ...

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