Religiosity and sense of coherence – Protective factors of mental health and well-being?

Introduction: We aimed to assess the impact of both religiosity and sense of coherence on mental health and general life satisfaction.

Methods: In this study, we recruited 389 individuals from different settings (n=251 psychosomatic outpatients and n=138 healthy blood donors). The participants completed measures of exposure to psychologically traumatic events, posttraumatic symptoms, anxiety, depression, and sense of coherence.

Results: We did not find any significant associations between religiosity and mental health variables and life satisfaction. In contrast, significant highly correlations were seen between sense of coherence and anxiety (r=−0.60), depression (r=−0.59), PTSD symptomatology (r=−0.53), and life satisfaction (r=0.58).

Discussion: Based on our results, sense of coherence but not religiosity may be a protective factor for mental health and well-being.