Depression and evangelical Christian spirituality: exploring a theoretical model

While religious involvement, particularly intrinsic religiosity or spirituality, has shown a significant inverse relationship with depression, this relationship is complex and multifaceted and several decades of study have yet to reveal a clear pattern. This work is a survey of the current research on the etiology and symptomology of depression and its interaction with spirituality. This work is testing a new model that views the effects of depression on spirituality as a function of an individual’s perceived relationship with God. A survey was distributed to a sample of 135 evangelical Christians. Depressed persons made up approximately 16% of the sample. An independent samples t-test demonstrated that depressed persons had significantly lower scores of spirituality than non-depressed persons. Depressed persons were more likely to indicate that they felt unloved by God or angry at God, indicators of relational disruptions similar to patterns seen in interpersonal relationships of those with depression.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Author dc:creator

• Klukow, Katheryn Jane

Contributors dc:contributor

• Hood, Ralph W., Jr., 1942-
• Metzger, Richard L.; Eames, Kevin
• College of Arts and Sciences

• Depression
• Mental
• Evangelism

Licence

• https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en

Language dc:language

English, eng

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/41

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholar.utc.edu:theses-1040