Spirituality, beliefs, and religious practices of young Mexicans: coincidences and divergences between believers and nonbelievers

Flexible working hours can have several meanings and can be arranged in a number of ways to suit the worker and/or employer. Two aspects of “flexible” arrangement of working hours were considered: one more subjected to company control and decision (variability) and one more connected to individual discretion and autonomy (flexibility). The aim of the study was to analyze these two dimensions in relation to health and well‐being, taking into consideration the interaction with some relevant background variables related to demographics plus working and social conditions. The dataset of the Third European Survey on working conditions, conducted in 2000 and involving 21,505 workers, was used. Nineteen health disorders and four psycho‐social conditions were tested by means of multiple logistic regression analysis, in which mutually adjusted odds ratios were calculated for age, gender, marital status, number of children, occupation, mode of employment, shift work, night work, time pressure, mental and physical workload, job satisfaction, and participation in work organization. The flexibility and variability of working hours appeared inversely related to health and psycho‐social well‐being: the most favorable effects were associated with higher flexibility and lower variability. The analysis of the interactions with the twelve intervening variables showed that physical work, age, and flexibility are the three most important factors affecting health and well‐being. Flexibility resulted as the most important factor to influence work satisfaction; the second to affect family and social commitment and the ability to do the same job when 60 years old, as well as trauma, overall fatigue, irritability, and headache; and the third to influence heart disease, stomachache, anxiety, injury, and the feeling that health being at risk because of work. Variability was the third most important factor influencing family and social commitments. Moreover, shift and night work confirmed to have a significant influence on sleep, digestive and cardiovascular troubles, as well and health and safety at work. Time pressure also showed a relevant influence, both on individual stress and social life. Therefore, suitable arrangements of flexible working time, aimed at supporting workers' coping strategies, appear to have a clear beneficial effect on worker health and well‐being, with positive consequences also at the company and social level, as evidenced by the higher “feeling to be able to work until 60 years of age”.

In examining the changing landscape of spirituality and spiritual practice on college and university campuses today, questions need to be considered about both the core concept of spirituality and the context in which spirituality relates to education. This article examines both the concept of and context for spirituality in higher education and seeks to describe the broad world of spiritual practices on today’s campuses both in terms of what people are practicing and where these practices are taking place. An example of a week of spiritual practices at Wellesley College during fall 2012 illustrates the dramatic changes that have taken place on many campuses across the country related to the diversity of spiritual practices in the lives of students, faculty, and staff. The concept of spirituality- defined as those humanistic, religious, and spiritual beliefs and practices through which a person seeks to find meaning and purpose as they deepen their understanding of self, other and world-is explored and a case made for the breadth of this definition. Issues of spirituality as a key identity-forming aspect of many students’ experiences are considered together with spiritual practice as an important factor affecting students’ social location and their communication with other students who are members of different groups. Spirituality and spiritual practice on our campuses are increasingly seen as educational issues, important to the lives and learning of our students. Spirituality broadly defined and the associated practices through which students seek meaning and purpose will continue to be woven into the fabric of an excellent, integrated educational experience in the coming decades.

ObjectiveTo investigate why cancer patients and their families prefer traditional, spiritual, folk, and religious healer practices over medical treatment, and to explore the various traditional, spiritual, folk, and religious healing practices used to treat oncological disorders.MethodologyA descriptive qualitative study design was used. The participants were patients diagnosed with cancer (n = 4), their family members (n = 4), and the healers (n = 4) providing care to these patients. In total, there were twelve participants in this research. A semi-structured, open-ended interview guide was used for the data collection.Study settingResearch was conducted in Murree, Kotli Sattian, Rawalpindi District of Punjab, Pakistan.ResultsData analysis of this study showed that factors influencing decision making for the healing practices were resources, such as unavailability of healthcare facilities within the vicinity, distances and limited finances, fear related to a new diagnosis, and cultural influence, including spiritual and religious factors. Furthermore, the types of practices performed by the patients and used by healers to treat oncological disorders were found to be religious, spiritual, traditional, and folk healing practices.ConclusionPeople prefer religious, spiritual, traditional, and folk healing practices for oncological disorders for multiple reasons including cultural belief, lack of resources, inaccessibility of healthcare facilities, and lack of awareness. People use various healing practices that they believe can aid in healing, but this is due to their ignorance. These and many other factors lead to a delay in cancer diagnosis, and it is too late to save their lives. However, religious and spiritual practices can help in enhancing the quality of life when an individual is in a challenging health condition.

Churches have long been sites of local charity work as well as national political movements. What happens when people engage in more individualistic forms of spirituality, like mindfulness meditation or yoga, rather than participate in religious communities? Might the rise of individualized forms of spirituality lead to a decline in political engagement? Or, among people averse to religion, might spiritual practice operate as a substitute, and potentially contribute to political engagement? Drawing on burgeoning theory of religion and spirituality as socially-situated boundary objects, we use data from the 2020 National Religion and Spirituality Survey to examine the relationship between self-reported spiritual and religious practices and political engagement. First, we investigate whether study participants distinguish spiritual and religious practice as distinct concepts through factor analysis. Next, we use those results to examine the association between these practices and reports of political behavior. We find a consistent, positive relationship between spiritual practice and political engagement of comparable magnitude to that of religious practices. Notably, during an era of heightened political polarization around religious engagement, political progressives, respondents of color, and members of the LGBT community are more likely to report spiritual rather than religious practices. This points us to a theory of spiritual practice as a substitute for religious engagement among groups alienated from religious institutions, with the former capable of fostering similar proclivities for political action as the latter. Our results suggest critiques of a “selfish” spirituality have been overblown.

Much mainstream legal comment on human rights law presents an unhelpfully crude picture of disagreement concerning the significance that should be attached to human rights in particular cultural co...

Religion and spirituality in the context of health care are poorly understood, particularly for individuals with chronic illness. Using data from the 2003 Complementary and Alternative Medicine supplement to the 2001 California Health Interview Survey, we examined whether cancer survivors (n = 1,777) and individuals with other chronic illnesses (n = 4,784) were either more likely to identify themselves as religious and spiritual or more likely to use religious and spiritual practices for health purposes than individuals with no disease (n = 2,342). We observed that cancer survivors and individuals with chronic illnesses were more likely than those with no disease to use religious and spiritual prayer and healing practices. Individuals with chronic diseases were not inherently more likely to identify themselves as religious than were healthy individuals and were only slightly more likely to identify themselves as spiritual. These findings indicate that individuals with cancer and other chronic illnesses may be using religious and spiritual practices as a way to cope with their illness. Future research should continue to examine whether and how religious and spiritual practices are used as complementary or alternative medicine, and health care professionals should ask their patients about such use.

ABSTRACTThe present study aims to analyse the association that different types of spiritual and religious practices have with the occurrence of Exceptional Human Experiences (EHEs) as well as their emotional evaluation. We analysed the relation that meditation, prayer, and ‘other’ spiritual practices, or the lack of them, have with the occurrence of EHEs, which were measured employing the Exceptional Experiences Questionnaire (EEQ). Samples were recruited at psychology departments in the UK and USA. They consisted of n = 301 non-clinical participants, of whom n = 156 were from Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA (average age = 32.3, SD = 13.7); and n = 145 from Northampton, UK (average age = 25.2, SD = 9.8). Results suggest that people who pray experienced fewer experiences of deconstruction/ego loss, psychopathological and visionary dream experiences than other spiritual practice groups. Those who pray also reported more positive mystical experiences than non-practising individuals; whereas individuals with a regular meditative practice experienced more visionary dream experiences, and evaluated such experiences more positively, than those who pray and non- practising individuals. Results suggest that different spiritual and religious techniques are associated with different phenomenological end evaluative patterns of EHEs that can be differentiated from psychopathological experiences.

Organizational commitment and social loafing are important and interrelated concepts in working life. Employees who think that their performance will decrease and their effort will be lost, their work is not important and meaningful, prefer to hide in the crowd and socially loaf. It is crucial to reveal the exact nature of this relationship in terms of employee productivity, cooperation, competitiveness and inexhaustibility. Organizational commitment and social loafing are thought to have an important efficiency-, performance- and job satisfaction-related impact on the work outcomes of research assistants. This study aims at determining the relationship between social loafing and organizational commitment of research assistants, and finding out whether the levels of social loafing and organizational commitment differ significantly depending on the type of staff and length of service. The criterion sampling method, one of the purposeful sampling methods, was used for the sampling. The participants are 34 research assistants working in a faculty. Correlational survey model was used to investigate the relationship between the levels of organizational commitment and social loafing of research assistants. Personal Information Recognition Form, Organizational Commitment Scale, and Social Loafing Scale were used as the data collection tools. Pearson’s and Spearman’s correlation analyses, independent sample t-test, one-way analysis of variance and Kruskal-Wallis analysis were used in the analysis of the data. A significant and inverse relationship was found between affective commitment (as a sub-dimension of organizational commitment) and social loafing. No significant difference could be identified between the groups in social loafing and organizational commitment levels in terms of demographic variables.

Spirituality in a Broken World

Traditional practices constituting spiritual and religious (S/R) healing are an important component of the holistic healthcare model and are used in health, well-being, and treating a variety of diseases around the world. The main focus of this review is to summarize the Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) studies that especially target S/R healing practices in Saudi Arabia (SA) and discuss the results in light of relevant international literature. From year 2013-2017, electronic searches of PubMed, OvidSP, Google Scholar, and two publishing housing Web sites (Sciencedomain.com and Dove Medical Press.com) were made using key words and Boolean operators and retrieved thousands of published papers from peer-reviewed journals. Two independent reviewers decided to include a total of 108 articles: 48 from SA and 60 from other international literature. The sociodemographic variables of the participants varied in local studies and were comparable with international data. The frequency and types of religious and spiritual practices reported in local and international zones varied in accordance with religious belief, gender, age, education, and prevalent chronic diseases. Most of professionals and practitioners showed fairly good knowledge and positive attitude toward spiritual and religious practices used in diverse clinical and non-clinical situations across the world. Furthermore, it was observed that in the international scenario, S/R researches using specific religious screening tools have been conducted on different aspects of clinical application including self-care, social cohesion, negative impact, and child development, whereas regional studies targeting varied participants mainly focused on the epidemiological trends of S/R therapies in Saudi Arabia. CAM practitioners and public tend to show great interest in prescribed and self-use of religious and spiritual therapies across the world because of multiple dynamic forces, including positive effects on health, sense of well-being and disease control, cost-effectiveness, easy access to services, and improvement in quality of life. Further studies are needed to assess the effectiveness of different types of religious and spiritual therapies and practices used in specific diseases, their role in promotion of health and well-being, and prevention of diseases nationwide and across the world. Besides integration of S/R into mainstream treatment modalities, medical education curriculum, continuous medical education, and training programs are needed for bridging the knowledge, attitude, and practice gaps concerning CAM in targeted population groups such as medical professionals, CAM practitioners, medical students, public and traditional healers, not only in SA but also around the world.

Background: Spirituality and spiritual support for older people with intellectual disability are deemed important, however little is known about their specific needs. This paper reports for the first time on the religious and spiritual practices of older adults with intellectual disability. Methods: A national longitudinal study examined the prevalence of spiritual practices among older people with intellectual disability in the Republic of Ireland. Results: Older people with intellectual disability seek and receive solace from religious and spiritual practices, especially if they are lonely, in poor health, distressed or bereaved. There is likely a social benefit to spiritual and religious aspects of life that would be beneficial to explore further. Conclusions: Globally more research is required and efforts should be made to ensure greater opportunities for inclusion in societal spiritual and religious activities and to more clearly determine the spiritual needs of this population.

Although much is known about the frequency of the spiritual activities of pastoral workers, less is known related to how important specific spiritual and existential practices are to pastoral workers personally or existentially. This part of the German Pastoral Ministry Study analyzed (1) which forms of spiritual activities were regarded as important, (2) how the perceived importance of religious practices related to frequency of engagement in spiritual practices, and (3) how these practices contributed to the life satisfaction of ordained priests and of non-ordained pastoral workers. Participants included 1826 Catholic pastoral workers, composed of 65% priests and 35% (non-ordained) pastoral assistants and parish expert workers. Prosocial-Humanistic practices scored highest in importance, followed by Gratitude/Awe, Existentialistic practices, and Religious practices; specific forms of Spiritual Mind-Body practices were not relevant. Differences in the frequency and ascribed importance of spiritual practices between ordained and non-ordained pastoral workers were identified, as well as a surprising lack of connection between religious practices and their proclaimed importance, particularly of Prosocial-Humanistic and Gratitude/Awe practices. These findings may stimulate further research into the underlying causes of these differences between priests and other pastoral workers and between the frequency and importance of spiritual practices in all groups, which in the researchers’ opinion indicate challenging inconsistencies with regard to the ideals of religious vocations.

The researchers study coopetition in various levels such as individual, intraorganizational or interorganizational. However, there is a gap in coopetition studies at the society level, at the meta-level. We consider Social Coopetition as the capacity of the society's stakeholders to work together, oriented to create social value to generate solutions to economic, social and environmental problems, providing local development based on cooperation and social commitment. This research has twofold objectives, i) to define Social Coopetition and propose its dimensions, ii) to validate a scale to measure coopetition at society level. An expert's panel analyzed 101 variables extracted by the literature review, and they selected 75 variables grouped in 7 dimensions as a qualitative pre-validation. In the sequence, we performed an exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis to validate the scale. Our findings indicated 12 dimensions could express the social coopetition level: social asymmetry, perceptions of individual and collective benefits, socio-political characteristics, communication, competition, social competence, social commitment, previous experience, social governance, interdependence, technological and innovation level and cultural similarity. The findings provide a scale to monitor the social coopetition through 48 variables. Our results bring a novel in the coopetition field and have theoretical and practical implications. The findings explore a new coopetition level. Also, it provides a tool for municipal management to improve the coopetition strategies performance toward the generation of social value.

Introduction: Research consistently indicates that insufficient sleep, whether it is a persistent or short-term issue, can result in daytime sleepiness among the general population. Contributing factors include demanding work schedules, social commitments, and the habit of using electronic devices before bedtime. Aim: To find the relationship between sleep deprivation, daytime sleepiness, and socio-economic status, and their association among teachers, bachelor’s and master’s students, and medical practitioners. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study included the assessment of daytime sleepiness and quality of sleep among different populations using the Eppworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), respectively. The socio-economic status was assessed using the modified Kuppuswamy Scale (mKS). The participants were categorised into three groups: teachers, students, and medical professionals according to their profession. In the analysis, to find the linear relationship between age, Body Mass Index (BMI), and the other three outcomes, Pearson’s correlation was used. Results: There were 65 (38.5%) males and 104 (61.5%) females among the respondents. On analysis, considering the overall results, it was found that there was a moderate positive correlation between age and BMI (r-value=0.232, p-value<0.05) and no significant correlation between age and ESS, PSQI, mKS. There was a moderately negative correlation between mKS and ESS (r-value=-0.205, p-value=0.016), suggesting that the lower the SES, the more the chances of daytime sleepiness in students’ group. In the teacher’s group, there was no significant correlation between age and BMI, ESS, PSQI, and mKS in any of the groups. Conclusion: It can be concluded that daytime sleepiness was related to socio-economic status in students, such that they are inversely proportional to each other. Medical practitioners experienced the most daytime sleepiness compared to other population groups.

This article addresses the role of the imagination in moral development, focusing on the writings of Ella Lyman Cabot, a student of Josiah Royce. Her work in the fields of ethics and social-political philosophy, reflected in her Everyday Ethics (1906) complements, and in many cases, anticipates the way in which Dewey, James and Royce describe the imagination as a vital force in our ethical lives. My project is yet another attempt to broaden the scope of the imagination beyond its traditional aesthetic rendering. I aim to situate Cabot's work on the moral imagination in the context of classical American philosophy but also in terms of several broader questions in moral theory, questions that have troubled various figures of the Western philosophical canon, and that may be answered by a reframing of the imagination as an ethical lynchpin. I argue that sympathy, the recognition of moral patience, and our appropriate responses in light of this recognition turn on the workings of the imagination as it has been traditionally construed in the fields of aesthetics and epistemology.