Attitudes Towards Mental Health, Spiritual Seeking, and Well-Being

Author

David MitchellFollow

Campus Location

Abilene Campus (Residential)

Date of Award

5-2023

ORCID

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2464-3302

Document Type

Thesis

Department

Psychology

Degree Name

Master of Science

Committee Chair or Primary Advisor

Richard Beck

Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor

David Mosher

Third Committee Member or Committee Reader

Scott Perkins

Abstract

Religion plays a crucial role in many peoples’ lives, shaping the way they interact with the world and react to stressors. The Relational Spirituality Model (Sandage & Shults, 2007) posits that individuals’ relationship with God resembles humans’ relationships with one another. That is, relationships consist of intimacy and closeness as well as independence and time away from each other, otherwise known as dwelling and seeking. Previous literature has analyzed the relationship between spiritual coping and well-being, yet none have analyzed the relationship between spiritual seeking and overall well-being using attitudes towards mental health as a moderator. Participants were 84 undergraduate and graduate students from Abilene Christian University, as well as friends on social media who completed demographic questions and six scales measuring attitudes towards mental health, faith maturity, spiritual seeking, and overall well-being. Though no moderating effects were found, negative religious coping negatively correlated with mental health stigma. Implications of the findings, limitations, and future directions are also discussed.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Mitchell, David, "Attitudes Towards Mental Health, Spiritual Seeking, and Well-Being" (2023). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 592.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/592