Journal of Research on Religion and Health
Year:2018 | Volume:4 | Issue:4|Papers Count:11

Today, despite the welfare and technological advances, man still has not been able to achieve his ultimate calmness. There are both internal and external issues in human’ s world, if faced without meaning and connection to spiritual perceptions, each will be excruciating both mentally and physically, ultimately affecting his mental health by these apparently powerful little cognitive-behavioral obstacles, so that he loses the pulse of life. This is to say that spirituality leads to perceiving meaning, purpose, realizing moral values (1) and eventually guiding manners (2). Although whatever has been done so far in the area of treatment and prevention has been able to ensure relative prosperity and well-being, it seems that shorter and less time-consuming methods can be adopted in the area of prevention and treatment. Introducing the way with spirituality truth is one of those direct brief paths of human’ s salvation and happiness. The idea that health lies in soul is in fact the main subject of the relationship between health, religion, and spirituality. For Muslims, Christians, Hindus, and Catholics, from adolescence to adulthood, spirituality is a major factor in health (3)...

Background and Objective: HIV not only disrupts the routine life of those affected, but also negatively influences their mental health. This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of spiritual-religious psychotherapy on depression, fulfillment of basic psychological needs and satisfaction with life among people with HIV. Method: The research design was a semi-experimental one with pretestposttest and control group format. The population consisted of all men with HIV who referred to Imam Reza Hospital in Kermanshah. The criteria for inclusion were BDI-S, BPNQ, and SWLS. The patients with the highest scores were selected through convenience sampling and randomly assigned to experimental and control groups (n1=n2=15, N=30). The experimental group was provided with eight 60-minute sessions of therapeutic intervention scheduled once a week, while the control group received no intervention. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA). All ethical issues were observed in this study and the researchers declared no conflict of interests. Results: The results showed a significant difference between the experimental and control groups in reducing depression as well as satisfying psychological basic needs including autonomy, competence, and communication with others (P<0. 05). Moreover, in overall life satisfaction scores were significantly different between two groups (P<0. 05). Conclusion: The findings indicate that spiritual-religious psychotherapy on patients with HIV in conjunction with standard medical care have a beneficial effect on health and reduce the severity of clinical disorders.

Background and Objective: A number of factors contribute to stress in students’ life. One of the most important of these factors is the religious attitudes and psychological hardiness. Given that, the present study aims at examining the role of religious attitudes and psychological hardiness in stress among the students at University of Bojnord. Method: The statistical population in this descriptive-correlational study was all students at University of Bojnord in the second semester of the academic year in 2017. The sample consisted of 170 students who were selected through stratified random sampling. To collect the data, the Ahvaz Hardiness Inventory (AHI), Iranian Religious Attitude Questionnaire, and Student-Life Stress Inventory (SLSI) were used. The collected data were analyzed by multiple regressions and Pearson correlation coefficient. It should be noted that ethical considerations were all observed in this study and the researchers declared no conflict of interests. Results: Findings indicated that correlation coefficients between religious attitudes (r=-0. 526) and psychological hardiness (r=-0. 457) with studentlife stress were significant (p<0. 05). Stepwise regression analysis also showed that psychological hardiness and religious attitude can respectively predict the student-life stress (R2=0. 241, p<0. 04). Conclusion: According to the results, stress in students’ life can be predicted through religious attitudes and hardiness. Therefore, considering these two variables is recommended in stress management programs for students.

Background and Objective: Spirituality and family are two important components in determining the psychological and social damages. The purpose of this study was to compare addicts and non-addicts in terms of spiritual health, family hardiness, and family satisfaction. Method: The present study is a causal-comparative one whose statistical population consisted of all male addicts in Dehdasht city in 2015. In the present study, 70 addicts were selected through cluster random sampling method and also 70 non-addicts who were homogeneous in terms of demographic characteristics with addicts were selected through convenience sampling. Both groups completed the spiritual health questionnaire, family hardiness index, and family satisfaction questionnaire. The gathered data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). All ethical issues were observed in this study and the researchers declared no conflict of interests. Results: The results showed that there was a significant difference between addicts and non-addicts. The scores of addicts on all three variables of spiritual health (religious health and existential health), family hardiness, and family satisfaction were lower than non-addicts (P<0. 001). Conclusion: It can be concluded that addicts are at disadvantage in terms of spiritual health, family hardiness, and family satisfaction compared to non-addicts. In addition, in the treatment of addiction, these variables can be included as levers in the programs.

Background and Objective: Marital conflicts of couples arise due to differences in their needs and satisfying them, self-orientation, irresponsible behavior, and conflict of demands. Social adaptation is adaptive behaviors acquired to meet the surrounding needs that often require the correction of impulses, excitements and attitudes. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of emotion-focused couple therapy based on religious teachings on social compatibility and marital conflicts of couples. Method: The present study was a clinical trial in which a pre-and posttest with control group was used. The statistical population of this study included all couples referring to the family clinic of Shahid Beheshti University in 2016. 40 couples were selected by available sampling method and placed in the group of emotion-focused couple therapy based on religious teachings (n=20) and control group (n=20). For the participants in the experimental group, 10 sessions of emotion-focused couple therapy based on religious teachings (90 minutes each session) were held once a week. To collect the data, the Bell's Social Adjustment Scale (BAI) and Marital Conflict Questionnaire (MCQ) were used. All ethical issues were observed in this study and the researchers declared no conflict of interests. Results: The findings showed that teaching emotion-focused couple therapy based on religious instructions has a significant effect on social compatibility of couples (0. 34), emotional compatibility (0. 59), and job compatibility (0. 24, P<0. 05). Decrease in cooperation, sex, relationship with the relatives of the spouse; increase in children's protection; loss of effective communication; and separating the finances were 0. 37, 0. 25, 0. 48, 0. 15, 0. 43 and 0. 17, respectively (P<0. 05). Conclusion: Religion in the family and the relationship between couples, religious practices, adherence to religious beliefs and values prevent conflicts of individual tendencies and couples, leading to shared patterns of behavior and social compatibility in the family.

Background and Objective: The concept of God which is conveyed to individuals by means of oral and cultural media is a conceptual understanding of people about attributes of God and is closely associated with psychological health of individuals. Having said that, the aim of the current research was predicting obsessive-compulsive behavior and phobic anxiety in students of Medical Sciences in 2014, examining the role of the concept of God in this regard. Method: In this descriptive-correlational study, whose statistical population was the students at Tehran University of Medical Sciences, 367 students were selected by proportional stratified sampling. God Concept Scale and Scales of Obsessive-Compulsive and Phobic Anxiety of Symptoms Checklist-90R were administered on them. All ethical issues were observed in this study and the researchers declared no conflict of interests. Results: Multiple regression analysis of the data indicated that obsessivecompulsive behavior and phobic anxiety of university students can be predicted by the way they frame the concept of God. Moreover, the findings revealed that the male students who had a positive concept of God were lower in phobic anxiety (r=24; p<0. 05). However, the female univesity students who had a positive concept of God were lower in obsessive-compulsive behavior (r=28; p<0. 05). Conclusion: According to the findings, it can be concluded that obsessive-compulsive behavior and phobic anxiety of university students are subject to their concept of God.

and Objective: Mental health and addiction problems have caused a number of important issues, including physical, economic, psychological and other harms to students. The purpose of this article is to formulate a model for predicting mental health and drug use tendency with regard to the mediating role of spirituality. Method: This study is of descriptive-analytic nature using structural equation. The statistical population of this study consisted of all undergraduate students studying at Ilam University of Applied Sciences in 2017-2018. A total of 86 students were selected by simple random sampling. The research tools included researcher-made demographic checklist, spirituality questionnaire, Goldenberg mental health questionnaire, and addiction tendency. The data were analyzed through regression coefficient and structural equations. In this study, all ethical considerations were observed and the authors of the article have not reported any conflicts of interest. Results: The results showed that there is a significant relationship between mental health and spirituality (P<0. 05; t=4. 2), as well as between spirituality and drug use tendency (P<0. 05; t=2. 45). Also, there was a significant relationship between mental health and drug addiction tendency (P<0. 05; t=7. 33). Besides, there was a meaningful relationship between mental health and drug addiction tendency; mental health directly affects students' drug use tendency and also indirectly affects the tendency toward drug use through mediator of spirituality. Conclusion: In general, it can be said that spirituality as a component can explain mental health and tendency to use narcotic drugs, which can be increased by raising the spirituality level by organizing workshops for this purpose.

Background and Objective: Spiritual well-being is one of the fundamental concepts in chronic diseases and is considered an important approach to improve public health. Given the importance of spiritual well-being and its role, the purpose of this study is a structural model which examines the impact of spiritual well-being on psychological distress with regard to loneliness and hopelessness as mediators. Method: This descriptive study is correlational. Participants were 144 patients with spinal cord injury in Isfahan selected through convenience sampling. The data were collected using the Spiritual Well-Being Scale (SWBS), UCLA Loneliness Scale, Beck Hopelessness Scale and DASS-21 Scale. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed as statistical technique for data analysis of the study. All ethical issues were observed in this study and the researchers declared no conflict of interests. Results: The results demonstrated that Spiritual Well-being, Loneliness and Hopelessness significantly correlated with Psychological Distress. Further, the test of mediation by bootstrapping method established significant mediating role of Loneliness and Hopelessness in the relationship between Spiritual Well-being and Psychological Distress. Conclusion: These findings can beneficially contribute to the clinical settings in treatment of psychological distress among the patients with spinal cord injury.

Background and Objective: Religion and spiritual beliefs are of particular significance in human’ s life. Self-efficacy is also a motivating factor for activating, strengthening, sustaining, and guiding behavior toward the goal. Each of these two variables can affect different aspects of life, even how hopeful individuals are. Taking this into account, this study aimed to examine the role of spirituality and self-efficacy in students' hope given the mediating role of goal orientation. Method: The research method is descriptive-correlational, using path analysis. The statistical population included students from Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. Regarding the number of variables in the proposed path analysis model, which is considered for each variable of 15 people, and by considering the criterion of the generalizability of sample findings to the community, 280 students from the statistical population were selected through available sampling method. To collect data, spirituality, self-efficacy, hope and goal orientation questionnaires were used. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation and path analysis. All ethical issues were observed in this study and the researchers declared no conflict of interests. Results: The correlation results show that all of the observed variables correlate (p<0. 01). Performing a path analysis to test the relationship between the role of spirituality and self-efficacy on hope through goal orientation and the proposed pattern (RMSEA=0. 098, GFI=0/99) showed to be well fit. Conclusion: The results of this research suggest that spirituality and selfefficacy through the goal orientation mediation will increase the hope of students. Therefore, considering the positive impact of self-efficacy and spirituality and goal orientation, the use of these capacities is recommended in individual and group planning and activities of students to boost their hopes.

Background and Objective: Today, instead of preserving the health and life of people in some health centers, under the pretext of pity, the patients with difficult-to-cure diseases are suggested to accelerate selective death. Euthanasia dates back to ancient Roma and is one of the controversial topics discussed in different legal and jurisprudential aspects in academic circles. With the intent of explaining the jurisprudence sentence for euthanasia, alongside proposing some primary topics, in this article we have tried to introduce a new category based on an effective criterion in the jurisprudence sentence unlike the common categories in scientific circles. Method: This library research is descriptive-analytical for which the articles of years between 1996 and 1997 were studied and reviewed. The procedure was as follows: keywords such as euthanasia, self-killing, retaliation, suicide, self-preservation, and imperative and dispositive rule were searched; then, the Qur`an and the books with jurisprudential and deductive themes such as Fikh va Hoghoogh-e-Tahaffozi by Ayat-Allah Sistani, Vasael Al-Shiea and Mostadrak were used. After analysis, the findings were taught and discussed in 10 sessions of the Hawza classes. All ethical issues were observed in this study and the researchers declared no conflict of interests. Results: The overall eight types of euthanasia and their subcategories are classified into three general major categories: a) Three of them are the case of intentional murdering and imperative rule of prohibition as well as dispositive rule of retaliation. b) One of them is the case of general suicidal that has only imperative prohibition. c) Four of them are the case of general necessity of self-preservation, leaving which has imperative prohibition, and doesn`t have dispositive rule due to self-killing. Conclusion: All of the eight forms of euthanasia are prohibited and we recommend that instead of this, revival be tried. This requires conducting studies to find treatment for difficult-to-cure diseases.

Background and Objective: The medical teachings of Islam have numerous recommendations for the health of body and soul. Part of these teachings is about mental illnesses such as insanity. Islam has given many instructions to cope with insanity. Besides, organizing these recommendations and explaining them are the aims of this research. Method: This study is a library research which has reviewed for words such as "insane", "madness", "jinn" and "touching" in religious texts and also for the aforementioned keywords provided in the databases of articles. All ethical issues were observed in this study and the researcher declared no conflict of interests. Results: Insanity has been pointed out in the medical teachings of Islam in two dimensions of prevention and treatment. In these teachings, there are many material and spiritual methods presented that have been examined in the present paper and ultimately up to twenty methods have been introduced. Findings in the field of research suggest that the issue of insanity in the related literature has been investigated only from the jurisprudential, legal, medical, and literary viewpoints, and no comprehensive research has ever been done on insanity using the approach of Islamic medicine. Conclusion: In terms of Islamic teachings, insanity is a severe illness and it is easy to prevent. Proposed ways of Islam to prevent and treat illnesses in general and insanity in particular are simple, inexpensive and natural. Prayers and demanding needs of the Lord along with practical measures for treatment and prevention corroborate psychologists' experiences. And eventually, Islam has considered all aspects of human existence and has given special attention to human dignity when dealing with diseases.