Religion, Spirituality, Well-Being, and Ill-Being in a Church-Renewal Movement: The Case of Finland

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Pietari Hannikainen

Abstract An expanding body of research connects religiosity/spirituality (later R/S) with human well-being and health. While psychological and medical research lacks a common theoretical or theological framework, these dimensions are measured by instruments with a wide variation in quality. As the religious landscapes in Western societies are becoming increasingly plural and complex, the need for developing our understanding and assessment of the role of R/S in human health and well-being is as important as ever. This study, based on quantitative data (N = 529) from members of a church renewal oriented network in the Lutheran majority Church in Finland, measures the role of R/S in the subjective well-being of the participants through a multi-dimensional framework. While exploring Ellison’s Spiritual Well-being Scale (1983), the study expands its scope to a more multi-dimensional approach to religion, spirituality and well-being. The results reveal that religious beliefs and practices do not contribute to the level of subjective well-being in the lives of the participants as much as the way in which these beliefs and practices are lived out and actualized in social contexts. The study identified several sources of both well-being and ill-being in the participants’ lives. The article contributes to the terms of measuring the various ways in which R/S are connected to human well-being.

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gökmen Arslan ◽  
Murat Yıldırım

The coronavirus pandemic has significantly affected the Turkish population. During the pandemic, people with high coronavirus stress are at risk of experiencing poor subjective well-being. There is no research investigating the role of meaning-based coping and spirituality in explaining the link between coronavirus stress and subjective well-being. This study examined the mediating roles of meaning-based coping and spiritual well-being in the link between coronavirus stress and subjective well-being in young adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. The sample included 427 young adults (71% female), ranging in age between 18 and 48 years (M = 21.06; SD = 2.62). Turkish young adults completed an online survey, including measures of coronavirus stress, subjective well-being, meaning-based coping, and spiritual well-being. The results indicate that greater meaning-based coping and spiritual well-being mediated decreases in the adverse impacts of coronavirus stress on subjective well-being. These results suggest that the importance of a combination of meaning-based coping and spirituality processes mitigate the adverse effects of stress on well-being during the coronavirus pandemic. Interventions focusing on meaning-based coping and spirituality in those experiencing high coronavirus stress are urgently needed to improve the mental health and well-being of young adults.


2020 ◽  
Vol 83 (3) ◽  
pp. 207-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Veronica Negraia ◽  
Jennifer March Augustine

Although public debate ensues over whether parents or nonparents have higher levels of emotional well-being, scholars suggest that being a parent is associated with a mixed bag of emotions. Drawing on the American Time Use Survey for the years 2010, 2012, and 2013 and unique measures of subjective well-being that capture positive and negative emotions linked to daily activities, we “unpack” this mixed bag. We do so by examining contextual variation in the parenting emotions gap based on activity type, whether parents’ children were present, parenting stage, and respondent’s gender. We found that parenting was associated with more positive emotions than nonparenting, but also more negative emotions. This pattern existed only during housework and leisure, not during paid work. Moreover, patterns in positive emotions existed only when parents’ children were present; patterns in negative emotions were primarily observed during earlier stages of parenting. Results were similar for men and women.


2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-72
Author(s):  
Nomatter Sande

Abstract The role of religion in ecological discourse has gained ground in the quest to improve people’s lives in society. Herbal medicine is known to treat complex diseases. However, there are complexities in protecting the environment since herbal medicine entails having an in-depth understanding of traditional knowledge systems, beliefs, and practices. Pentecostal churches in Zimbabwe such as the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) have remained impervious to the widespread campaign promoting the use of herbs as an effective healing treatment. Divine healing is central to the AFM, and thus they view traditional herbal medicines as originating from evil spirits, despite scriptures referring to herbs as both food and medicine. Accordingly, developing a theology of ‘greening faith’ in the AFM will foster a constructive attitude toward the use of traditional herbal medicines. This article examines the position of the AFM on traditional herbal medicine and utilises ecotheology as its theoretical framework together with data gathered through in-depth interviews. The article concludes that the AFM should consciously use faith to protect the environment and promote the health and well-being of its believers.


2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (11/12) ◽  
pp. 2054-2079 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lena Cavusoglu ◽  
Melike Demirbag-Kaplan

Purpose Historically, research on perceptions of health either converged upon the meanings created and proposed by specialists in the healthcare industry or focused on people who have medical conditions. This approach has failed to capture how the meanings and notions of health have been evolving as medicine extends into non-medical spheres and has left gaps in the exploration of how the meanings surrounding health and well-being are constructed, negotiated and reproduced in lay discourse. This paper aims to fill this gap in the understanding of the perceptions surrounding health by investigating consumers’ digitized visual accounts on social media. Design/methodology/approach Textual network and visual content analyses of posts extracted from Instagram are used to derive conclusions on definitions of health and well-being as perceived by healthy lay individuals. Findings Research demonstrates that digital discourse of health is clustered around four F’s, namely, food, fitness, fashion and feelings, which can be categorized with respect to their degrees of representation on a commodification/communification versus bodily/spiritual well-being map. Originality/value Our knowledge about the meanings of health as constructed and reflected by healthy lay people is very limited and even more so about how these meaning-making processes is realized through digital media. This paper contributes to theory by integrating consumers’ meaning-making literature into health perceptions, as well as investigating the role of social networks in enabling a consumptionscape of well-being. Besides a methodological contribution of using social network analysis on textual data, this paper also provides valuable insights for policy-makers, communicators and professionals of health.


1983 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 330-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Craig W. Ellison

Recent attempts to measure the quality of life or subjective well-being show promise for a more helpful and accurate appraisal of the collective and individual state of people than objective, economically-oriented indicators have allowed. Unfortunately, the quality of life movement has virtually ignored the religious dimension of life and the part that such beliefs and practices play in well-being. In response to this void, Paloutzian and Ellison (1982) have developed a Spiritual Well-Being Scale which measures both religious and existential well-being. This article reports on the conceptualization of the spiritual well-being dimension, development of the scale, research which has utilized the scale, and suggests directions for future research.


GIS Business ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 156-162
Author(s):  
Dr. D. Shoba ◽  
Dr. G. Suganthi

Work-Life balance has its importance from ancient days and the concept is very old, from the day the world has been created. There was a drastic change that has occurred in the market of teachers and their personal profiles. There are tremendous changes in various families which have bartered from the ‘breadwinner’ role of traditional men to single parent families and dual earning couples. This study furnishes an insight into work life balance and job satisfaction of teachers working in School of Villupuram District. The sample comprises of 75 school teachers from Government and private schools in Villupuram District. The Study results that there is increasing mediating evidence in Work-life balance as well as Job satisfaction of teachers are not affected by the type of school in which they are working. Job satisfaction or Pleasure of life will be affected as a whole by Work life balance of an individual which is the main which can be calculated by construct of subjective well being.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuguang Sun ◽  
Ailing Huang

The intermediary effect interval of the preschool teachers' competence characteristics → positive psychological capital → the subjective well-being of the preschool teachers is (0.23—0.55), does not contain 0, and the effect amount is 0.35. The competency characteristics of preschool teachers → The direct effect interval of subjective well-being of preschool teachers is (0.05—0.36), excluding 0, and the effect quantity is 0.20, indicating that positive psychological capital as a mediator variable has the characteristics of preschool teachers and the subjective well-being of preschool teachers. Partial mediating effect, the ratio of mediating effect to total effect is 64.01%.


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