Browse All

Theses & Dissertations


  • Submissions (Articles, Chapters, and other finished products)

The Relationship between Religion, Social Interest, and Wellness in Adults

Amy Bigbee (Creator)
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Jane Myers

Abstract: The primary purpose of the study was to explore the relationship between religion, social interest, and wellness in adults. A stratified random sample was taken of faculty, staff, and students at a university with 125 individuals participating in the study. All participants completed an online survey including the Brief Multidimensional Measurement of Religiousness and Spirituality (Fetzer, 1999), Social Interest Index (Greever, Tseng, Friedland, 1973), and Five-Factor Wellness Inventory (Myers & Sweeney, 2005). It was hypothesized that there would be a significant relationship between the components of religion, social interest, and wellness. The mediating role of social interest on the relationship between the components of religion and wellness was explored along with considering mean differences for wellness across religious groups. Finally, mean differences for all three scales were explored for ethnicity, gender, and age. The hypotheses were tested using correlations and multivariate analysis. Components of religion were found to have a significant relationship with wellness, although only the components of Daily Spiritual Experience and Organizational Religiousness had significant relationships with social interest. Social interest and wellness had a positive significant relationship (.544). Social interest also mediated the relationship between Daily Spiritual Experience and Total Wellness. There were no mean differences found for Total Wellness across different religious groups. African American participants had higher mean scores on the components of religion. Women had higher mean scores than men for various components of religion. Older participants were found to have higher mean scores for Total Wellness and Organizational Religiousness. This study is the first to date to examine religion, social interest, and holistic wellness. Future studies are needed to continue to explore the relationships between religion, social interest, and wellness specifically the relationship between religion and social interest. It is important that future research includes samples that are more diverse not only in regards to gender, ethnicity, and age but also in religious groups and denominations.

Additional Information

Language: English
Date: 2008
Religion, Social interest, Wellness, Spirituality
Spirituality $x Health aspects.
Health $x Religious aspects.
Social interaction $x Health aspects.