“Do not be anxious about anything”: relationships between intrinsic religiosity, stigma of anxiety disorders, and treatment-seeking attitudes in a religiously affiliated university sample

Abstract

ABSTRACT The current study aimed to examine how intrinsic religiosity related to beliefs about anxiety disorders, as well as how beliefs about anxiety disorders compared to schizophrenia. A convenience sample (N = 134) from a religious university completed measures of intrinsic religiosity, beliefs about anxiety and schizophrenia (i.e., anxiety/schizophrenia being related to sin/immorality and anxiety/schizophrenia being due to spiritual causes/requiring spiritual treatment), self-stigma of seeking help, and desire to seek treatment from a psychologist. Multiple regression analyses revealed that intrinsic religiosity predicted beliefs that anxiety is a result of sin/immorality and beliefs that anxiety has spiritually-oriented causes and treatments. Beliefs about spiritually-oriented causes and treatments of anxiety also predicted self-stigma of seeking help. Additionally, beliefs that anxiety stemmed from sin/morality were higher than such beliefs about schizophrenia. Results align with previous research and indicate the need for more research to examine the influence religiosity may have on beliefs about anxiety disorders.