It is generally accepted that religion typically acts as a protective factor against suicidal behavior. However, there remains some debate over the various mechanisms that underlie this relationship and how these mechanisms may function across different religious traditions. The purpose of this illustrative review is to expand on previous themes in the literature that have focused primarily on ...

The interactions between religious affiliation, education, HIV knowledge, and HIV-related sexual behaviors among African church youth are poorly understood. In this socio-demographic study, 522 unmarried youth 12-28 years old in rural central Mozambique were surveyed with a structured questionnaire. Using binary logistic regression analysis, we used religious affiliation and education to measur...

Religiosity has long been known to promote volunteering in the US and elsewhere. Despite the growing body of research examining religious correlates of volunteering, however, few studies have focused on whether and how religious attitudes affect volunteering. With data from the Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS II), 2004–2006, we examine the influences of religious attitudes, name...

Patrick McNamara has made a thoughtful and nuanced contribution to a growing field centered on questions concerning brain activity required for, and involved in, religious life. In a field spanning the disciplines of neuroscience and religious studies it is often hard to find a perspective that has been thoroughly developed on both frontiers for the obvious reason that both are so expansive. Bu...

BACKGROUND Religious coping is known as a main resource influencing how individuals cope with the complications and stressors of chronic disease. OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between religious coping and quality of life among hemodialysis patients. METHODS This cross-sectional study was conducted in Qom, Iran, from June 2012 to July 2013. Ninety-five end-s...

Patient-centered care is widely supported by physicians, but this wide-spread support potentially obscures the social patterning of clinical interactions. We know that patients often want religious/spiritual conversations in the context of medical care but the provision is infrequent. As there is regional variance in religiosity, a gap in the literature exists regarding whether patient populati...

BACKGROUND Beliefs surrounding pain during childbirth has biblical foundations that contribute to labour pain being viewed as a natural phenomenon. Contemporary health care promotes evidence-based labour pain management but the faith of the midwife may influence her midwifery practice regarding labour pain management. Therefore this study sought to gain in-depth insight into the experiences and...

In this paper I explore the psychology of ritual performance and present a simple graphical model that clarifies several issues in William Irons's theory of religion as a "hard-to-fake" sign of commitment. Irons posits that religious behaviors or rituals serve as costly signals of an individual's commitment to a religious group. Increased commitment among members of a religious group may facili...

BACKGROUND & PURPOSE Globally, diabetes is one of the most common non-contagious diseases resulting in severe complications. Fostered hope facilitates coping and improves self-care and one of the Factors affecting hope is religious beliefs. This research investigated the level of hope and its relationship with religious coping among Type 2 diabetes patients. MATERIAL & METHODS This correlatio...