Major Life Changes, Spirituality, and Religion

This study aimed to scrutinize the relationship between life changes and spirituality. We examined religiousness and spirituality in 77 adult volunteers aged 39.45 (SD=11.97) who answered demographic questions and completed five subscales of the Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness/Spirituality. Respondents were grouped based on whether they experienced a major life-changing spiritual event (72.7%) or not (27.3%). The former group scored higher (p<.05) on all measures than the latter group. Among this group, the proportion of religious (p=.04) and spiritual (p<.001) identity was also higher. The groups did not differ in age, gender, education, and living area. Among those who experienced a significant life change, 42.9% had such experiences at or under 18 years. Most (83.4%) of these participants were committed spiritually and attended religious services once or more weekly. The age at which a life change occurred correlated strongly (r=.70) with strengthening religious/spiritual practices. The results indicate that life-changing spiritual events fuel religious and/or spiritual attitudes and behaviors, and their impact might be more substantial if experienced at a younger age.

本研究旨在系统考察生活变故与灵性（spirituality）之间的关联。我们对77名成年志愿者的宗教性（religiousness）与灵性水平展开测评，这些志愿者的平均年龄为39.45岁（标准差SD=11.97），他们填写了人口统计学问卷，并完成了《简明多维宗教性/灵性量表（Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness/Spirituality）》的5个分量表。
根据是否经历过重大灵性生活变故，我们将受访者划分为两组：经历该类事件的组别占比72.7%，未经历的组别占比27.3%。相较于未经历组，经历组在所有测评维度上的得分均显著更高（p<0.05）；且该组中拥有明确宗教身份（p=0.04）与灵性身份（p<0.001）的人群比例同样更高。
两组在年龄、性别、受教育程度与居住地区上均无显著差异。在经历过重大灵性生活变故的组别中，42.9%的受访者在18岁及以下时便经历了这类事件。其中多数（83.4%）参与者拥有坚定的灵性信仰，且每周参与一次或多次宗教礼拜活动。
生活变故发生的年龄与宗教/灵性实践的强化程度呈强相关（r=0.70）。本研究结果表明，引发重大转变的灵性事件能够强化个体的宗教与/或灵性态度及行为，且若该类事件发生于个体更年轻的阶段，其影响可能更为深远。