Study Links Patience with Reduced Anxiety, but Not Spiritual Struggles

Religion and spirituality can offer a meaningful framework and social support, but they are not universally beneficial for psychological well-being. Many individuals encounter significant tensions, doubts, and negative emotions regarding their beliefs, a phenomenon known as religious and spiritual struggles.

These struggles can manifest in various ways, including anger toward a divine entity, conflict with religious community members, or deep moral concerns. Previous studies have linked these faith-based tensions with increased anxiety and depressive symptoms, particularly during college years when young adults often reassess inherited beliefs and explore new meanings.

Laura Upenieks, a sociologist at Baylor University, and her colleagues aimed to identify psychological traits that could help individuals cope with these challenges, focusing specifically on the virtue of patience. In psychological terms, patience is an active coping mechanism that encompasses emotional regulation and the ability to endure hardship without impulsive reactions.

The research examined three types of patience: interpersonal patience (managing frustration with others), life hardship patience (enduring significant life difficulties), and daily hassles patience (tolerating everyday annoyances like waiting in line or heavy traffic).

The researchers posited that a patient individual might possess emotional stability necessary for processing deep existential questions without becoming overwhelmed by anxiety. To test this hypothesis, they analyzed data from 274 undergraduate students at a large Christian university in the southern United States, tracking them over their college careers.

Students completed surveys during their first semester and again in their senior year, assessing their experiences with spiritual struggles and generalized anxiety symptoms, as well as their levels of the three patience types. Utilizing latent change score modeling allowed the researchers to evaluate initial trait levels while observing how these traits developed over the four years.

Findings revealed that students reporting frequent spiritual struggles also exhibited higher anxiety levels, a pattern that persisted throughout college. Nevertheless, the hypothesis suggesting that patience would act as a buffer against anxiety related to spiritual struggles was not supported; no significant interaction between patience and spiritual struggles was identified.

The study suggests that spiritual struggles may fundamentally challenge a person’s belief system, and emotional resilience alone may not mitigate the distress arising from identity crises or fears of divine abandonment. However, patience remained an independent predictor of mental health. Students with higher levels of interpersonal and life hardship patience in their first semester initially exhibited lower anxiety levels.

Over the four-year period, while changes in interpersonal and life hardship patience did not correlate with changes in anxiety, an increase in daily hassles patience did correlate with a notable decrease in anxiety symptoms by senior year. This indicates that the ability to manage everyday irritations could alleviate general stress accumulation, creating emotional space for improved mental health.

The authors acknowledge several methodological limitations; the study exclusively involved students from a religious institution, which may not reflect broader experiences. The shared religious context may heighten the visibility and prominence of spiritual struggles, and the single survey question used to measure these struggles limits the differentiation of specific issues.

Self-reported data may also introduce biases, and the sample size of 274 may limit the complexity of the analytical models employed. Future studies should aim to replicate these findings in larger, more diverse populations and could explore behavioral interventions focused on managing minor daily inconveniences to reduce generalized anxiety. Addressing the core causes of spiritual struggles may require different support structures, such as community discussions or pastoral care.

The study, titled “Religious/Spiritual Struggles, Patience, and Anxiety: A Longitudinal Examination of Virtue and Vulnerability,” was authored by Laura Upenieks, Hiroki Matsuo, Kevin D. Dougherty, Perry L. Glanzer, and Sarah A. Schnitker.