The relationship between psychological health and attitude toward theistic faith: An empirical enquiry among 13- to 15-year-old students

Abstract

This study explores the relationship between psychological health and attitude toward theistic faith among 2,067 13- to 15-year-old students attending secondary schools across Wales, building upon existing empirical research which examines the association between Eysenck’s dimensional model of personality (a measure of psychological health), and the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity (a measure of affective religiosity). The participants completed the Astley-Francis Scale of Attitude toward Theistic Faith together with the abbreviated Revised Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (JEPQR-A). The data indicated that a positive attitude toward theistic faith was associated with neither higher nor lower neuroticism scores, but was associated with lower psychoticism scores. There is no evidence, therefore, to link a positive view of theistic faith with poorer levels of psychological health (in terms of higher neuroticism or higher psychoticism) among young people in Wales, and some evidence to associate a positive view of theistic faith with better levels of psychological health (in terms of lower psychoticism).