Psychological Well-Being and Religiosity / Spirituality of Pastoral Caregivers in a Time of Crisis

Abstract

This cross-sectional study aims to describe the effects of religiosity/spirituality (centrality of religiosity and spiritual struggles) on psychological burden as well as well-being of pastoral caregivers in Switzerland and Germany during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown from March to June 2020. Based on an adaptation of the vulnerability-stress-model we designed SEMs to investigate the effects of religiosity/spirituality on psychological burden and well-being in a sample of 334 pastoral caregivers. Results show that positive main effects of centrality of religiosity (CRS) on psychological burden (CES-D) and well-being (PANAS) are mediated by emotional competencies (SEC-27) as well as by spiritual struggles (RSS). The pattern of the model associations remains stable with regard to both outcomes – psychological burden (CES-D) as well as well-being (PANAS). It can be concluded that, in a situation of crisis, in the work of pastoral caregivers religious or spiritual struggles might arise hindering the caregivers from relying on their religiosity/spirituality as a resource for their well-being. However, making use of emotional competencies might help caregivers to rely on their religiosity/spirituality as a resource for their psychological well-being to the better.