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The Role Everyday Spirituality Plays on Loneliness
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
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correlation did not reveal a significant correlation between spirituality and loneliness, r (40) =
0.75, p = 0.324 (one-tailed). Table 1 shows the 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
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between the 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.
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
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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.
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,
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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
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