Approaches to religiosity related to anxiety among college students

Abstract

To date, the literature on religiosity and anxiety has yielded mixed results. Available results suggest that constellations of religious attitudes, commitment and denominational subcultures have diverse relationships with types of anxiety. A sample of college students from a predominantly conservative Christian area responded to the Prayer Functions Scale, the Religious Commitment Inventory, the Scriptural Literalism Scale, the Fowler Religious Attitudes Scale, the Anxiety Control Questionnaire and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. A principal components analysis suggests that a constellation of religious variables—which involves religious commitment; aspects of one's prayer life, and relating to others in the religious reference group—has a significant negative relationship with trait anxiety. Although further confirmatory studies are necessary, at this point available data suggest that a committed, related approach to religiosity may be associated with lower levels of general anxiety.