Spirituality, Religious Attendance and Health Complaints in Czech Adolescents

Radka Zidkova,Petr Glogar,Michal Kalman,Peter Tavel,Jitse P Van Dijk,Iva Polackova Solcova,Klara Malinakova

doi:10.3390/ijerph17072339

Abstract

Research in some religious countries shows that religiosity and spirituality positively affect adolescent health. We studied whether religiosity and spirituality also have positive associations with adolescent health in a secular country. We tested the associations between religious attendance and spirituality and self-reported health and health complaints using a representative sample of Czech adolescents (n = 4182, 14.4 ± 1.1 years, 48.6% boys) from the 2014 health behavior in school-aged children (HBSC) study. We used religious attendance, the adjusted shortened version of the spiritual well-being scale (SWBS), and its two components—religious well-being (RWB) and existential well-being (EWB)—as independent variables and the eight item “HBSC symptom checklist” and self-reported overall health as dependent variables. A higher level of spirituality was associated with lower chances of health complaints and self-reported health, ranging from a 9% to 30% decrease in odd ratios (OR). Religious attendance was not associated with any of the observed variables. The EWB showed a negative association with all of the observed variables, with associations ranging from a 19% to 47% decrease. The RWB was associated with a higher risk of nervousness (OR = 1.12), while other associations were not significant. Non-spiritual but attending respondents were more likely to report a higher occurrence of stomachache (OR = 2.20) and had significantly worse overall health (OR = 2.38). In a largely secular country, we found that spirituality and the EWB (unlike religious attendance and the RWB) could have a significant influence on adolescent health.

Highlights

Adolescence is a dynamic transitional process accompanied by physical, psychological, and emotional changes [1] associated with brain maturation, endocrine change, and physical growth
Our first observation was that religious attendance of Czech adolescents had no association with their health complaints, which is in contrast to the findings of other authors, who reported that religious participation affects health outcomes [26,27]
Findings on associations of spirituality with lower risk of health complaints, as we found in our study, are consistent with those of other authors, who suggest that spirituality is related to positive outcomes in mental health and psychological well-being and that it promotes healthy development [9,14,31]

Summary

Introduction

Adolescence is a dynamic transitional process accompanied by physical, psychological, and emotional changes [1] associated with brain maturation, endocrine change, and physical growth. These changes are very complex and their effect on health and well-being are profound. Adolescence marks a transition in risks for depression and other mental disorders, substance misuse, and antisocial behavior, as well as a fast-track to adulthood with early transitions into sexual activity and school leaving and psychosomatic syndromes [2]. Several common pain syndromes, such as headache, stomachache, back. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 2339; doi:10.3390/ijerph17072339 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph

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