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The Role Everyday Spirituality Plays on Loneliness
Liberty University
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Results
The current study had 40 participants with gender results as 60% male, 40%
female. The Racial category results were 40% white, 15% Asian, 40% Hispanic/
Latino, 5% Black/ African American, and zero other & American Indian/ Alaskan
Native (Figure 1). The race results are the only demographic shown in Figure 1 due
to the relevance to the study. The age of the participants ranged from 20-48, had a
mean age of 23.15, and had a standard deviation of 4.406.
Figure 1
Demographic Data of Racial Category
. The current study hypothesized that there was a relationship between
spirituality and loneliness, as spirituality scores raise, then loneliness scores will
decrease. A Pearson’s r correlation did not reveal a significant correlation between
spirituality and loneliness, r (40) = 0.75, p = 0.324 (one-tailed). Table 1 shows the
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SPSS output from the Pearson’s r test ran in IBM SPSS Statistics (version 28)
predictive analytics software.
Table 1
SPSS Correlation Output
Discussion
Due to the lack of consistent research findings on the relationship between
spirituality and loneliness, the goal of the current study was to explore the field by
including relevant demographics to understand a potential cultural factor to the results.
It was expected that since loneliness can lead to mental health issues, and spirituality
could point to an increase in mental health, in various racial culture groups, then
increased loneliness correlates to decreased spirituality (Hackney & Sanders, 2003;
Rasic et al., 2011; Gallegos & Segrin, 2019; Martins, 2022). The null hypothesis
failed to be rejected, and there was not a significant correlation between the
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loneliness and spirituality scores, therefore there was also no cultural factor at play
on the findings. This is because since the initial hypothesis was not significant, then
it cannot be said that the racial culture group had an effect on the correlation that
was no present.
One limitation to the current study was the limited age range of the
participants. Although the range is from 20-48, the mean is much closer to 20 than
48. The results of the demographics show that the age 48 is an outlier of from the
rest of the participants, whereas the age ranged focused mostly near the mean of
23.15. One potential reasoning, or confound, for the study could be that that the
average participants were classified as generation z (10-25 years old), and the overall
spirituality and religious affiliation in generation z is decreasing, as they attempt to
find self-empowering solutions (Camargo et al., 2019). This points to the idea that a
larger age range could have offered a bigger range of spirituality affiliation and a
more accurate population representation, therefore receiving different results. Another
limitation of the current study was that the survey was given through a social media
platform (Instagram), and social media has been previously shown to lead to an
increase in mental health issues that lead to loneliness (Abi-Jaude et al., 2020;
Gallegos & Segrin, 2019). Since a social media platform was used to distribute the
survey, it shows the participants are all users of social media and, and therefore,
there is a possibility of an increase in mental health among the participants leading
to an increase in feelings of loneliness. Using a different source to distribute the
surveys might have provided a more representative sample.
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Rasic and colleagues (2011) found a correlation between spirituality and less
suicidal ideations, signifying higher rates of social support pointing towards lower
rates of loneliness. This contradicts the current study which showed no significant
correlation between spirituality and loneliness, yet the current study did not observe
specifically suicidal ideations, yet it measured loneliness with the UCLA Loneliness
Scale (Wongpakaran et al., 2020). There was also a similarity between the studies
whereas in Rasic and colleagues’ (2011) study, there was no significant correlation
between religious attendance and anxiety and depression, and religion and spirituality
are sometimes used interchangeably, therefore this could be seen as a similar
comparison to the one in the current study. To determine whether the multiple
comparisons in the study contrasted or compared to the current study, one would
have to explore the operational definitions of each variable at hand. Gallegos and
Segrin’s (2019) study was comparable to the current study since it focused on
Latinos and 41% of the participants in the current study were Latino, yet the study’s
showed differing results. It was found that spirituality led to a protection of
loneliness leading to better mental health, whereas the current study found no
correlation between spirituality and loneliness, yet the current study found a limitation
in age range of survey distribution source that Gallegos and Segrin’s (2019) study
did not have. The more accurate population representative sample could be a reason
for the contradicting results. As shown in the numerous studies, there is varying
results on whether spirituality and religion relate to mental health, yet Hackney &
Sanders (2003) conducted a meta-analysis of the differing studies that show how
important operationalizing the definitions are to comparing results.
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Although there was no significant correlation between spirituality and loneliness
among the participants in the current study, this shows the variability and uniqueness
of humankind. Past studies have shown positive correlations regarding older age
groups and loneliness and/or spirituality, yet the current study was limited to those
around the age of 23 who use social media. (Martins et al., 2020). The younger
generations experience spirituality in diverse ways, and some feel loneliness in diverse
ways, yet the study presents how unique each person is that there is no specific
relationship between these two variables.
Future research could be conducted with a wider age range and through a
different source of distribution to receive a sample more representative of the
population. Although the current study shows variability within those of younger
generations, future research could help indicate what roles spirituality and loneliness
play in those of different age groups, in different walks of life. Since different racial
cultures were pretty well represented in the current study, there is always ways to
create research around differing cultures, such as different religious cultures.
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References
Abi-Jaoude, E., Naylor, K. T., & Pignatiello, A. (2020). Smartphones, social media
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