ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the relationship between spiritual struggles and levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) with a subsample (N = 943) of participants who took part in a nationwide survey. This study, which was completed in 2014, was conducted in the United States. Spiritual struggles refer to difficulties that a person may encounter with his or her faith and include having a troubled relationship with God, encountering difficulties with religious others, and being unable to find a sense of ultimate meaning in life. Based on the notion that spiritual struggles may be associated with personal growth as well physical health problems, it was hypothesized that there is a nonlinear relationship between the two: levels of IL-6 will decline at relatively low levels of spiritual struggles, but levels of IL-6 will increase as spiritual struggles become more severe. The findings support this hypothesis and suggest there is a quadratic relationship between spiritual struggles and IL-6. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

抽象的

本研究的目的是评估精神斗争和白细胞介素-6（IL-6）与一个子样本的水平之间的关系（Ñ = 943）参加了全国调查的参与者。这项研究于2014年完成，在美国进行。精神斗争是指一个人可能因信仰而遇到的困难，包括与上帝的关系陷入困境，与宗教上的其他人遇到困难以及无法找到生活的终极意义。基于精神斗争可能与个人成长以及身体健康问题相关的观念，假设两者之间存在非线性关系：IL-6的水平将在精神斗争的相对较低水平下下降，但IL-6的水平将下降。 IL-6将随着精神斗争的加剧而增加。这些发现支持了这一假设，并表明在精神斗争和IL-6之间存在二次关系。讨论了这些发现的临床意义。