Existential Spirituality, Religiosity, and Symptoms of Anxiety-Related Disorders: A Study of Belief in Ultimate Truth and Meaning in Life

Abstract

This study proposes a concept called “existential spirituality”–defined as the extent of a person's belief in ultimate truth and meaning in life—and explores the relationship between existential spirituality and distress (with and without controlling for religiosity, which prior research found to be inversely related to distress). To empirically examine these relationships, a structural equation model was estimated based on nationally representative data from the 2010 Baylor Religion Survey. Before religiosity was taken into account, existential spirituality was not significantly associated with the symptoms of anxiety-related disorders. When religiosity was added to the model, however, existential spirituality was positively related to generalized anxiety disorder and the obsessions associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Existential spirituality was also positively correlated with religiosity, as hypothesized. This finding indicates that religiosity was a suppressor for the spirituality-distress relationship. Implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.