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        Negative Life Events and Psychological Distress: The Mediating Role of Religious and Spiritual Struggles

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        Publication date
        2025
        Author
        Bieser, Nele
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        Summary
        Negative Life Events (NLE) and Psychological Distress (PD) have been strongly linked by literature. Still, not everyone who experienced NLE develops PD. The role of religious and spiritual (R/S) struggles is underexplored, particularly in a more secular setting like the Netherlands. This study aimed to investigate whether R/S struggles, especially the subdimension ultimate meaning struggles, partially mediate the relationship between NLE and PD. Further, the study examined whether UM struggles were a stronger mediator of NLE and anxiety symptoms compared to stress or depressive symptoms. A cross-sectional questionnaire was filled out by a non-clinical sample of people living in the Netherlands (N=191). The survey included the List of Threatening Experiences (LTE) for assessing NLE, the Religious and Spiritual Struggles Scale (RSSS) for R/S struggles, and the DASS-21 to measure PD. Three separate mediation models tested the hypotheses using SPSS Process. The findings indicated a significant weak direct effect. Neither R/S struggles nor UM struggles partially mediated the link between NLE and PD, as NLE did not predict R/S nor UM struggles. UM struggles were strongly linked to all PD subscales, but the most to depression. Although no mediation was confirmed, the strong association found between both R/S struggles and UM struggles with PD showcases their clinical relevance, even in less religious populations. The results demonstrate the need to integrate R/S struggles in psychological assessment and therapy.
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        https://studenttheses.uu.nl/handle/20.500.12932/49041
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