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Lower Self-Control among ‘Spiritual but not Religious’ Young Adults
Individuals were especially prone to committing property crime, and to a lesser extent, violent ones.
Comparisons were made among those that identified as either “religious and spiritual” or “religious but not spiritual,” according to the researchers.
Researchers discovered that when a young adult calls themselves “spiritual but not religious,” they appear to be reflecting more of an antisocial characteristic than a religious connotation.
The sociological study, published in the journal Criminology, showed that those who say they are “neither spiritual nor religious” are less likely to commit property crimes than the “spiritual but not religious” individuals.
But no difference was found between the two groups when it came to violent crimes.
“The notion of being spiritual but not associated with any organized religion has become increasingly popular, and our question is how that is different from being religious, whether you call yourself ‘spiritual’ or not,” said study leader, Sung Joon Jang, Ph.D.
Jang is lead author of the study, “Is Being ‘Spiritual’ Enough Without Being Religious? A Study of Violent and Property Crimes Among Emerging Adults.”
Until the 20th century, the terms “religious” and “spiritual” were treated as interchangeable. Previous research indicated that people who say they are religious show lower levels of crime and deviance, which refers to norm-violating behavior.
For the study, researchers analyzed data from a sample of 14,322 individuals from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. They ranged in age from 18 to 28, with an average age of 21.8.
In a confidential survey, participants were asked how often they had committed crimes in the previous 12 months — including violent crimes such as physical fights or armed robbery — while property crimes included vandalism, theft and burglary.
Past research shows that people who report themselves as spiritual make up about 10 percent of the general population, Jang said.
In their study, the Baylor researchers hypothesized that those who are spiritual but not religious would be less conventional than the religious group, but could be either more or less conventional than the “neither” group.
“We were thinking that religious people would have an institutional and communal attachment and investment, while the spiritual people would have more of an independent identity,” Franzen said.
Theories for why religious people are less likely to commit crime are that they fear “supernatural sanctions” as well as criminal punishment and feel shame about deviance; are bonded to conventional society; exercise high self-control in part because of parents who also are likely to be religious; and associate with peers who reinforce their behavior and beliefs.
Researchers discovered that people who are spiritual but not religious tend to have lower self-control than those who are religious.
They also are more likely to experience such strains as criminal victimization and such negative emotions as depression and anxiety. They also are more likely to have peers who use and abuse alcohol, Franzen said. Those factors are predictors of criminal behavior.
“It’s a challenge in terms of research to know what that actually means to be spiritual, because they self-identify,” he said. “But they are different in some way, as our study shows.”
In their research, sociologists included four categories based on how the young adults reported themselves. Those categories and percentages were:
- Spiritual but not religious: 11.5 percent
- Religious but not spiritual: 6.8 percent
- Both spiritual and religious: 37.9 percent
- Neither spiritual nor religious: 43.8 percent
Source: Baylor University
Hands holding a cross photo by shutterstock.
Postmenopausal Depression & Weight Gain Linked to Chronic Disease
In the study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, University of Massachusetts Medical School researchers investigated whether elevated depressive symptoms and antidepressant use are associated with biomarkers for glucose dysregulation and inflammation, BMI, and waist circumference.
The three main findings indicate that both elevated depressive symptoms and antidepressant use are each significantly associated with higher BMI and waist circumference.
Elevated depressive symptoms are associated with increased levels of insulin and insulin resistance. Antidepressant use is associated with higher leves of C-reactive protein (CRP), a marker of inflammation which increases the risk of type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
“It may be prudent to monitor post-menopausal women who have elevated depression symptoms or are taking antidepressant medication to prevent diabetes and cardiovascular disease,” said Yunsheng Ma, PhD, MD, MPH, lead researcher.
Postmenopausal women were recruited into the study from 1993 to 1998, and data for this analysis were collected at regular intervals through 2005. Using data from 1,953 women who completed all relevant assessments, the study found that elevated depressive symptoms were discovered to be significantly associated with increased insulin levels and measures of insulin resistance.
Researchers found that throughout the entire 7.6 years, women enrolled in the study with depressive symptoms (or taking antidepressants) had a higher BMI and waist measurements than those without depressive symptoms, with the strongest association for waist circumference.
Analysis of data from 2,242 women showed that both elevated depressive symptoms and antidepressant use were associated with higher CRP levels.
“Identifying these markers in women is important for diabetes prevention because they can be monitored for possible action before progression to full-blown diabetes,” said Ma.
Few studies have examined the association of BMI, waist circumference, and biomarkers of glucose dysregulation and inflammation with depression, antidepressant medication use, or both.
The current study included a large, racially and ethnically diverse sample of post-menopausal women.
Because the analysis was epidemiological, it could not determine a causal relationship, so further study is needed to confirm the results through clinical trials.
Source: University of Massachusetts Medical School
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