Document Type

Article

Peer Reviewed

1

Publication Date

3-2014

Scholarship Domain(s)

Scholarship of Discovery

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if there is a relationship between levels of religiousness and students’ openness to seeking treatment for mental health disorders in college‐aged students at a small private university. A total of 141 complete surveys were collected from students. Each participant completed the Fetzer Multidimensional Measurement of Religiousness/Spirituality for Use in Health Research along with an eight‐question survey assessing willingness to seek treatment for mental disorders. The results were analyzed to find the Spearman’s Rank Correlation Coefficient to determine correlation. Results show a significant correlation between levels of religiousness and willingness to seek treatment for three of the eight questions. These correlations show that those who have higher levels of spirituality are more open to seeking professional diagnosis and treatment for mental health disorders than those with lower levels of spiritualty. It was also found that those with a higher level of spirituality are likely to seek counseling for a mental disorder from clergymen or pastor before seeking professional medical help. Another finding was that level of spirituality does not affect whether participants would recommend that others seek treatment for a mental health disorder, seek spiritual improvement to combat mental health disorders, believe that mental health disorders are private spiritual matters, or believe that mental health problems are caused by spiritual warfare. Limitations of the study are that it was performed only using college students, and while multiple Christian denominations were included in the survey, none of the respondents were from any religion other than Christianity.

Comments

Honors Capstone Project completed in 2014 for Olivet Nazarene University.

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