Religious Doubt and Mental Well-Being in Later Life: Is Humility a Protective Resource?
Abstract
This study sought to integrate the study of virtue into the study of religious doubt and mental health by considering how a salient virtue, humility, may moderate the relationship between religious doubt and lower mental well-being. Drawing on data from a national sample of midlife and older adults (N = 1,443) from the United States, regression results suggest that religious doubts were associated with greater depression and lower life satisfaction, and that humility was independently associated with lower depression and greater life satisfaction. Humility was also found to buffer the pernicious association between religious doubt and both indicators of mental well-being. Taken together, our study makes an important contribution by adding the study of the virtue of humility to a growing body of work on religious doubt. The process of dealing with religious doubt is complex and difficult, but the attempt to develop the virtue of humility may be efficacious in thwarting the deleterious consequences of managing the ebbs and flows of faith.
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Biographies
Laura Upenieks is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Baylor University. Her research interests lie in health inequalities over the life course, aging and health and the sociology of religion. Her recent research is published in Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Social Psychology Quarterly, Society and Mental Health, Sociology of Religion and Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.
Christopher G. Ellison is Dean’s Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas at San Antonio. His long-term research interests include: (a) the links between religion and mental health, physical health, and mortality risk; (b) religious variations in family life, with particular attention to intimate relationships and childrearing; (c) racial and ethnic variations in the social role of religion; and (d) contemporary American public opinion, especially regarding race/ethnicity, politics, and Second Amendment issues.
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