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Religious Attendance, Surrender to God, and Suicide Risk East Tennessee State University Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University Electronic Theses and Dissertations Student Works 5-2019 Religious Attendance, Surrender to God, and Suicide Risk: Mediating Pathways of Feeling Forgiven by God and Psychopathology Kelley Pugh East Tennessee State University Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.etsu.edu/etd Part of the Psychology Commons Recommended Citation Pugh, Kelley, "Religious Attendance, Surrender to God, and Suicide Risk: Mediating Pathways of Feeling Forgiven by God and Psychopathology" (2019). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 3535. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/3535 This Thesis - Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Works at Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Religious Attendance, Surrender to God, and Suicide Risk: Mediating Pathways of Feeling Forgiven by God and Psychopathology __________________________________ A thesis presented to the faculty of the Department of Psychology East Tennessee State University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in Psychology __________________________________ by Kelley C. Pugh May 2019 __________________________________ Jameson K. Hirsch, Ph.D., chair Andrea D. Clements, Ph.D. Diana Morelen, Ph.D. Keywords: Religion, Surrender, Forgiveness, Depression, Anxiety, Stress, Suicide Risk ABSTRACT Religious Attendance, Surrender to God, and Suicide Risk: Mediating Pathways of Feeling Forgiven by God and Psychopathology by Kelley C. Pugh Suicide is a national public health concern, and college students may be at increased risk. Symptoms of psychopathology (i.e., stress, anxiety, and depression) may contribute to risk, whereas religiosity (i.e., religious attendance, surrendering to God, and feeling forgiven by God) may reduce risk. Students from a rural southeastern university (N=249) completed self-report measures. Serial mediation analyses indicate that attendance and surrender to God are inversely- predictive of suicide risk, both directly and through the indirect pathways of feeling forgiven by God (1st order mediator) and psychopathology (2nd order mediators). In all models, specific indirect effects occurred through feeling forgiven by God, suggesting the importance of relational aspects of religiosity. Our novel findings highlight mechanisms of action linking religiosity to suicide risk, and may provide direction for therapeutic intervention (e.g., psycho- education regarding religious involvement, fostering feelings of forgiveness) to reduce psychopathology and suicidality in the collegiate population. 2 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS There are several people to whom I am indebted for the completion of this milestone project. First, I am grateful for the persistence and expertise of Dr. Jameson Hirsch, who reviewed many rounds of revisions and offered keen insights throughout the course of this project. Under his supervision I have learned to be a better thinker and writer, and I owe him many thanks. I would also like to acknowledge Dr. Andi Clements and Dr. Diana Morelen, who have donated their energy and their time in serving on my committee. I am also thankful for faculty and staff members in the Department of Psychology who extended other forms of support and encouragement in this process: namely, Dr. Julia Dodd, Dr. Jill Stinson, Dr. Kerry Holland, and Ms. Carol Jensen. This project would not be possible without them. Others who did not have direct contact with this project were still instrumental in its completion. I am deeply grateful for my parents, who gave me a strong foundation to pursue higher education, and who have reminded me often how they were proud of me, even when I began to doubt the progress of my own work. I am grateful for my two siblings, for my fellow graduate students, for my friends in Johnson City and in far-away places, and for my community at Grace Fellowship Church, who all have provided me relief and unconditional support. I am grateful for Oséias Berto, who continues to be my biggest encourager and most steadfast supporter. The love of these people has uplifted me out of dark places and spurred me on towards brighter ones. I would not have finished this project without them. Most importantly, I credit the entirety of this project to God the Father, who has undeservedly blessed me with the ability and opportunity to do this research. He has given me all things in this life, and through the death and resurrection of his Son, He has given me life itself. I am grateful beyond words. I would be nothing without Him. Soli Deo Gloria. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ...........................................................................................................................2 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .....................................................................................................3 LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................7 LIST OF FIGURES ...............................................................................................................8 Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................9 Suicide Risk ..............................................................................................................11 Epidemiology .................................................................................................11 Risk Factors for Suicide .................................................................................12 Biological ...........................................................................................12 Sociodemographic ..............................................................................13 Interpersonal ......................................................................................16 Cognitive-Emotional ..........................................................................18 Psychopathological ............................................................................20 Religiosity, Mental Health, and Suicide Risk ............................................................26 Religiosity and Mental Well-being: Potential Mechanisms of Action ..........29 Commitment, Teachings, and Value Systems ...................................29 Support of Social Networks ...............................................................30 Religious Coping ...............................................................................31 Religious Attendance as a Protective Factor .................................................33 Surrender to God as a Protective Factor ........................................................37 4 Forgiveness as a Protective Factor .................................................................41 Feeling Forgiven by God ...................................................................43 Statement of the Problem ...........................................................................................47 Hypotheses .................................................................................................................48 2. METHOD ..........................................................................................................................50 Participants .................................................................................................................50 Procedure ...................................................................................................................50 Measures ....................................................................................................................51 Covariates ..................................................................................................................55 Statistical Analyses ....................................................................................................56 Bivariate Analyses .........................................................................................56 Multivariate Analyses ....................................................................................56 3. RESULTS ..........................................................................................................................59 Descriptive Statistics ..................................................................................................59 Bivariate Results ........................................................................................................60 Multivariate Results ...................................................................................................61 Models of Religious Attendance ....................................................................61 Models of Surrender to God ..........................................................................63 4. DISCUSSION ....................................................................................................................66 Discussion of Bivariate Associations .........................................................................67 Associations among Religious Variables .......................................................68 Associations among Psychopathological Variables .......................................71 Associations
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