1. The Religious and Spiritual Struggles of the Nonreligious and Nonspiritual
Nick Stauner, Julie J. Exline, Alex Uzdavines, & David F. Bradley
Case Western Reserve University
Kenneth I. Pargament
Bowling Green State University

2. Outline Religious & spiritual (R/S) struggle Religion vs. spirituality
…without religion or spirituality?
Religion vs. spirituality
Groups:
“Religious but not spiritual” “Spiritual but not religious”
“Both religious and spiritual” “Neither religious nor spiritual”
Distributions of R/S struggles
Correlations of R/S struggles with meaning in life

3. Religion and well-being
Strong empirical evidence of links in the USA
Religion may provide:
Existential meaning and life orientation
Comfort and coping mechanisms
Social identity and support
Motivates scientific study of religion, but isn’t the whole story

4. Religious and spiritual struggle
A relatively young niche in the psychology of religion
Distinct from religiousness and stress*
Religiousness rs = -.19–.42 Depression/anxiety rs = .22–.44
Important correlates:
Emotional distress, disorders, suicidal ideation
Physical health, illness symptoms, rehabilitation outcomes, longevity
*Exline, Pargament, Grubbs, & Yali (2014). Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 6(3), 208–222.

5. The Religious and Spiritual Struggles Scale*
Brand new (2014)
26 items, 6 dimensions
“Over the past few months, I have...”
Divine – “wondered if God really cares”
Demonic – “felt attacked by the devil or by evil spirits”
Interpersonal – “had conflicts with other people about [R/S] matters”
Moral – “felt guilty for not living up to my moral standards”
Ultimate Meaning – “questioned whether life really matters”
Doubt – “felt troubled by doubts or questions about [R/S]”
*Exline, Pargament, Grubbs, & Yali (2014). Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 6(3), 208–222.

6. R/S struggles without religion?
Existential threats*:
Death  Divine
Isolation  Interpersonal
Freedom  Moral
Meaninglessness  Ultimate meaning
Demonic  Search for malign agents is instinctual, adaptive
Doubt  Conformity pressure; Pascal’s wager
Mortality – why are we doomed to die? Can anything be done about it? Whom might you meet at death? How will you be treated?
Isolation – exacerbated by interpersonal struggle
Freedom / responsibility – the root of moral struggle
Meaninglessness – the root of struggle with ultimate meaning
Threatens belief systems and relationships with supernatural powers
Might motivate a search for meaning via religion
*Yalom (1980). Existential psychotherapy.

7. Spirituality vs. religion in theory
Personalized, experiential
May not involve the supernatural
Religion
Socially organized, emergent at community level
Belief set: origins, ethics, fate, metaphysics
Spirituality: more personalized, maybe more experiential
Less socially / culturally dependent in causes, definitions, expressions
May not involve the supernatural in self-transcendent themes
Religion: more organized, emergent at community level
Less distinct from other social phenomena like group conformity
Belief set usually includes origins, ethics, fate, other metaphysics topics

8. Research questions
Does the RSS work for people who aren’t religious or spiritual?
Do these groups have different distributions of R/S struggles?
Do meaning in life & R/S struggles still correlate in these groups?

9. Sample demographics N = 3,106 undergraduates
Age: mean = 19.1, SD = 2.1
63% female
73% Christian

10. Religious & spiritual identity
Religious Nonreligious Total Spiritual 1,631 (52.7%) 691 (22.3%) 2,322 (75%) Nonspiritual 378 (12.2%) 396 (12.8%) 774 (25%) Total 2,009 (64.9%) 1,087 (35.1%) 3,096

11. Measurement invariance
Metric and scalar invariance
Different latent means
Invariance test χ² df χ² df CFI RMSEA
Model 1, ,
Loadings 2, ,
Intercepts 2, ,
Latent means 4, ,

12. Distributions of divine strugglea b
Median
.05
.01
.07
-.41a

13. Distributions of demonic strugglea b c
Median
-.38
-.37
.36c
-.65a

14. Distributions of interpersonal struggle
Median
.11
-.24a
.05
-.26a

15. Distributions of moral strugglec
Median
-.09
-.03
.22c
-.62a

16. Distributions of ultimate meaning struggle
Median
.27b
.04
-.12
-.02

17. Distributions of doubt strugglea b*
Median
.13
.10
.03
-.42a

18. Summary of distribution differences
Neither religious nor spiritual: least struggles overall
Both religious and spiritual: most demonic & moral struggles
Spiritual: more interpersonal struggle than not spiritual
Spiritual but not religious: most meaning struggle
Oddly few differences between “S, not R” and “R, not S”

19. The Meaning in Life Questionnaire*
Presence of meaning in life subscale:
“I understand my life’s meaning.”
“My life has a clear sense of purpose.”
“I have a good sense of what makes my life meaningful.”
“My life has no clear purpose.” (Loads negatively / reverse-coded.)
“I have discovered a satisfying life purpose.”
Rated on 7-point Likert scale: “absolutely true”–“absolutely untrue”
*Steger, Frazier, Oishi, & Kaler (2006). Journal of Counseling Psychology, 53, 80–93.

20. Correlations of meaning & divine struggle
-.23
-.17
-.22

21. Correlations of meaning & demonic struggle
.01†
-.02†
-.07*
.09

22. Correlations of meaning & interpersonal struggle
-.15†
-.09
-.22*
-.08

23. Correlations of meaning & moral struggle
-.07
-.14*
-.18*
-.02

24. Correlations of meaning & meaning struggle
-.35
-.38
-.36
-.34

25. Correlations of meaning & doubt struggle
-.23*
-.18
-.28†
-.15

26. Summary of correlations
All correlations negative*
Spiritual but not religious: weakest correlations with meaning*
*Except Demonic struggles among “spiritual but not religious” (r = .09)
Religious but not spiritual: strongest correlations on average
Strongest, most consistent relationship with meaning struggles

27. Theoretical conclusions
The RSS doesn’t require religiousness or spirituality.
Struggles occur in all groups, but to subtly different degrees.
Struggles are less central to “spiritual but not religious” people.
But still relevant!
Especially ultimate meaning struggles

28. Implications for future research
Religious & spiritual struggles may occur in all subpopulations.
RSS are particularly important for “religious but not spiritual” people.
Ultimate meaning struggle is particularly important for everyone!
Religious & spiritual struggles may occur in all subpopulations.
Nonreligious & nonspiritual populations deserve further study.
Cross-cultural research could disentangle normativity of religiousness.
RSS are particularly important for “religious but not spiritual” people.
Longitudinal research should investigate cross-lagged relationships and changes over time in religiousness, spirituality, and struggles.

29. Credits
Grant funding from the John Templeton Foundation (#36094)

30. Thanks!