Religious and Spiritual Practices: Association with Dispositional Optimism in an Underprivileged Population in Lascano, Uruguay

Optimism seems to foster the ability to manage adverse situations better—a finding especially relevant for disadvantaged populations. Employing a unique sample from a small underprivileged village, we studied the association between religious/spiritual practices and dispositional optimism. The villa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of religion and health 2022-02, Vol.61 (1), p.353-372
Main Authors: Cid, Alejandro, Stokes, Charles E., Arrieta, Gonzalo, Ponce de León, María Mercedes
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aging
Clinical Psychology
Humans
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Optimism
Original Paper
Personality
Public Health
Religion
Religious Studies
Spirituality
Uruguay
Vulnerable Populations
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Summary:Optimism seems to foster the ability to manage adverse situations better—a finding especially relevant for disadvantaged populations. Employing a unique sample from a small underprivileged village, we studied the association between religious/spiritual practices and dispositional optimism. The village belongs to a developing country that is, by far, the most secular country in Latin America; this makes it particularly interesting for exploring the role of religious/spiritual practices in this context. We found that these practices were positively associated with higher optimism, measured by the Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R): those who practice spirituality, score, on average, 14.4 percentage points higher on the LOT-R than those who did not. This association seems to be especially robust in the case of the poor and less educated: those with religious/spiritual practices score 20 percentage points higher on the LOT-R. Thus, the role that these practices may play in dispositional optimism in disadvantaged populations deserves more attention.
ISSN:0022-4197
1573-6571
DOI:10.1007/s10943-021-01461-w