The bitter and the sweet revisited: religious resources, spiritual struggles, and psychological distress

Our study examines the complex relationships between religious practices, religious resources, spiritual struggles, and psychological distress. After developing a series of arguments linking several types of resources and several domains of spiritual struggle with mental health, we analyze data on a nationwide sample of elders and rank-and-file members of the Presbyterian Church USA (n=1,042). Key findings reveal: (a) minimal associations between organizational or non-organizational religious practices and distress; (b) moderate inverse associations between religious resources (e.g., congregational support, positive religious coping, secure attachment to God) and distress; and (c) much stronger associations between spiritual struggles (e.g., negative interactions in church, chronic doubting, troubled relationships with God) and distress. There is no clear evidence of stress-buffering effects of religion, and limited evidence that divine struggles (and to a lesser extent, chronic doubting) exacerbate the deleterious effects of negative life events in this study population. Study limitations, implications, and directions for future research are identified.