Abstract
This article reviews research on religion and well-being, focusing primarily on Western, traditional religions. We provide some nuance, caveats, and future directions for further research. We discuss how and why religious groups may differ in their well-being, that there may be important subgroup differences, that there are multiple dimensions to both religion and well-being, that religion and other cultural identities may interact to impact well-being, and that religion (e.g., religious anxieties) may be associated with lower well-being in some ways. We consider how religious extremism relates to well-being and also suggest that more research is needed regarding well-being in other types of religious and spiritual groups. We hope that this article will add complexity to the important intersections between religion and well-being.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 533-547 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | Applied Research in Quality of Life |
Volume | 12 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Sep 1 2017 |
Keywords
- Happiness
- Life satisfaction
- Religion
- Well-being
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Life-span and Life-course Studies