College students who take part in religious activities have better mental and emotional health than students who do not take part in these activities, found a recent study released by the University of California at Los Angeles' Higher Education Research Institute.
The study reported that students who integrated spirituality into their lives experienced significantly lower levels of psychological distress as compared with students who had little or no involvement in spiritual or religious activities.
Based on 3,680 college students at 46 colleges and universities across the nation, the study cited religious activities such as reading sacred texts, attending religious services or joining religious organizations on campus.
Findings that religious and spiritual students have lower stress levels do not particularly surprise Daniel Dennett, professor of philosophy at Tufts.
However, Dennett argues that there are non-religious activities that could also reduce stress. "There's tremendous variation in how people deal with stress and there are many practices which can relieve stress," Dennett said. "Meditation is a good example. So is participation in vigorous exercise, or playing music."
Freshman Will Glass said that "there are beneficial aspects [of spirituality or religion]," such as "self-evaluation, striving for a higher standard."
A different study, covered recently in TIME magazine, supports Glass' suggestion. The study found that meditation increases the release of mood stabilizers in the brain.
Using statistical evidence to support the connection between religious involvement and students' mental and emotional health, the UCLA study stated that students who did not attend religious services had experienced feelings of depression twice as often than students who do.
"My prayer helps reduce stress in my life," University Chaplain David O'Leary said, speaking on his own experience. He added that he believes everyone can benefit from spirituality.
Sophomore Justin Fanning questions the link between spirituality and low stress levels. "Everybody de-stresses in different ways," Fanning said. "Some use religion and others simply choose other methods that are out there." Fanning relaxes and manages stress by swimming, drawing, watching movies and listening to music. He believes that both methods can be equally successful for an individual.
In fact, Fanning suggests that "being non-religious relieves [students of] any stress that may be caused by holding true to [their] particular religious beliefs."
Fanning's belief corroborates another facet of the UCLA study, which notes that students who believed in the sacredness of life and spiritual experiences experience higher levels of "spiritual distress" - such as questioning religious or spiritual beliefs, feeling unsettled about religious or spiritual matters, or feeling angry with God - than those who reported lower levels of spirituality to begin with.
Freshman Ariel Gliksberg agrees that religion could possibly contribute to stress. Gliksberg balances academics with his religious activities, such as attending Hillel.
But Gliksberg points out that "people who keep Shabbat on Saturday don't use technology and spend more time with their families, which could potentially relieve stress."
Overall, however, Gliksberg is skeptical of the study. "I'm religious and I'm not stressed, but I don't think they're correlated," he said.
Freshman James Wiley agrees that the connection between lower levels of stress and religion could be due to the interaction with people during religious activities. Wiley believes religion is about the community it creates.
"More than the religion itself, the people you meet through religion can [form a] community that can help you during periods of stress," Wiley said.
Junior Danny Lee, a Christian, said that "religion tends to play a [larger] role in [his] life when [he's] stressed." Beliefs that "God is always there" and that even events that we perceive disappointing "are part of His plan" help Lee to deal with stress.
Lee admits he has never noticed a correlation between lower levels of stress among students who are more religious. "I don't know if I agree that that's true," he said, "but I think it's plausible."
