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之间的关联。我们招募了77名成年志愿者，其平均年龄为39.45岁（标准差SD=11.97），所有参与者均填写了人口统计学问卷，并完成了简明多维度宗教性/灵性量表（Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness/Spirituality）的5个分量表。研究人员根据是否经历过改变人生的重大灵性事件，将受访者划分为两组：经历组占比72.7%，未经历组占比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）。其中，经历组中拥有宗教身份（p=0.04）与灵性身份（p<0.001）的参与者占比同样更高。两组在年龄、性别、受教育程度及居住地区上均无显著差异。在经历过重大人生灵性变故的受访者中，有42.9%的人在18岁及以下时便经历了此类事件。该组中绝大多数（83.4%）参与者秉持坚定的灵性信仰，且每周参加一次或多次宗教仪式。人生灵性变故发生的年龄，与宗教/灵性实践的强化程度呈强相关（相关系数r=0.70）。本研究结果表明，改变人生的灵性事件可推动个体形成宗教与/或灵性态度及行为，且若该类事件发生于个体较为年轻的阶段，其影响可能更为显著。