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Hinduism encompasses considerable heterogeneity within its many schools of thoughts and practice. However, the common thread that binds these multiple perspectives is this handbook’s main topic of inquiry—human well-being and happiness. Hindu thought has always deliberated on the process, nature, conditions, and practices that lead to a fulfilled life. In this chapter, we begin by explaining Hinduism’s core beliefs and tenets that guide daily living. Many extant psychological publications on Hinduism explicate psychological ideas embedded in tradition. We draw comparisons between the Hindu worldview and broadly Western-based positive psychology concepts like well-being and the self. The chapter also expands on select Hindu models of human flourishing. The chapter further explains the recent empirical evidence on Hindu constructs, including well-being enhancing strategies, in relation to several positive psychology constructs such as well-being and flourishing. Finally, in the light of the reviewed empirical evidence, we discuss some directions and recommendations for future research at the intersections of Hindu religious literature and positive psychology.

Mindfulness is sometimes misunderstood as solely a Buddhist or secular practice. This chapter offers a toolkit for enhanced sensitivity and flexibility toward patients and populations of diverse spiritual and religious orientations and backgrounds. It explains a set of eight interrelated practices known as Passage Meditation (PM), and a subset known as the Mantram Repetition Program (MRP), both derived from Indian-born spiritual teacher Eknath Easwaran (1910-1999). These practices support mindfulness and can be pursued within any major religious tradition or outside all and facilitate drawing on spiritual resources within each tradition. Two empirical research programs based on these practices have generated more than 30 published research studies and seven randomized controlled trials. Each program has documented both enhanced mindfulness and a variety of improved mental health outcomes, often mediated by mindfulness gains. Guidance is provided for implementation, implications for diversity-related ethical obligations, and needed expansion of contemporary mindfulness toolkits.

For anyone interested in how people see themselves as learning from spiritual models, the Spiritual Modeling Self-Efficacy scale, Stand-Alone version (SMSE-SA) is the clear “go-to” assessment instrument. As the first psychometrically validated brief stand-alone measure of spiritual modeling processes, the SMSE-SA possesses wide-ranging applications in educational, pastoral, and clinical settings, where spiritually-focused interventions are of increasing interest. We report scale text, psychometric properties, correlates, and the underlying theory of the SMSE-SA. This is a stand-alone version of a previously published 10-item self-report assessment of a respondent’s perceived efficacy for learning from spiritual models—community-based or prominent people who for respondents exemplify spiritual qualities such as compassion, pro-social self-control, or faith. SMSE-SA total scores from a sample of 284 California college students demonstrated patterns of correlation supporting convergent and discriminant validity, demographic differences in expected directions, and substantial individual heterogeneity. The SMSE-SA has also shown good 7-week test/retest reliability (r = 0.77, N = 60). Most SMSE-SA properties correspond to properties previously observed for the non-stand-alone scale (SMSE-I), though the SMSE-SA alone has shown a modest correlation with socially desirable responding. The SMSE-SA is comprised of two correlated 5-item subscales for community-based and prominent models (internal reliabilities alpha >0.85). Subscale scores correlate positively with measures of many constructs held to be learnable through spiritual models. Previous randomized studies of college students have demonstrated that SMSE scores can be enhanced by psychosocial interventions. The psychometric properties and stand-alone utility of the SMSE-SA make it the go-to measure of spiritual modeling processes.

Objective Mantram or holy name repetition has long been practiced in every major religious tradition. Repetition of a mantram as a mindfulness practice is helpful for stress management and resilience building. The objective of this article is to provide an overview of the key features of mantram and the Mantram Repetition Program (MRP) developed in the US Veterans Healthcare System, the evidence base for the MRP, and its applications. Methods MRP practices are portable and do not require an extended or regularized period of sitting, in contrast to most methods of meditation. Core functions of MRP practices include focus shifting, frame activation, and fostering of mindfulness. We review scientific research, including multiple randomized trials, that has investigated the MRP. Results Research on the MRP has documented reductions in posttraumatic stress symptoms, insomnia, hyperarousal, and depression, as well as enhancement of quality of life, self-efficacy, and mindfulness. Mantram repetition may possess comparative advantages for managing symptoms of various mental health conditions, including posttraumatic stress disorder, HIV/AIDS, cancer, and chronic diseases. Conclusions MRP practices can be integrated into daily routines to manage stress and improve coping, safety, efficacy, calmness, and resilience. The inclusion of mantram repetition alongside conventional mindfulness-based practices for stress management will improve their cultural and religious inclusiveness, enabling societies and organizations to build greater collective resilience. Mantram repetition can be readily used in the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on healthcare workers, patients, and the public.

This chapter traces the history of modern meditation research. Meditation is conceptualized primarily as a seated practice for systematically training attention. Historically present in every major religion, meditation was traditionally used for spiritual purposes and usually accompanied by ancillary practices, such as spiritual fellowship. This chapter traces the dynamics and evolving interplay between dominant conceptions and forms of meditative practices under scientific study, as well as critiques of those conceptions, research questions, study designs, measurement instruments, and public reception and application. It describes how developments in each of these spheres have at different times opened up new lines of research, sometimes transforming other dimensions of ongoing research and practice. For the past fifty years, modern meditation research has progressed through partly overlapping periods that emphasized physiological measurement and secular adaptations; links to numerous health and well-being outcomes; emphasis on a sui generis psychosocial goal (mindfulness); advances in physiological and questionnaire-based empirical measurement; expansion of public, corporate, and governmental interest; increased concerns about abandonment of ethical bases and cultural context; and initial moves toward greater inclusiveness and integration of diverse methods and traditional perspectives.

We review the life and legacy of Eknath Easwaran (1910–1999) from the perspective of modern and Indian Psychology. A Kerala-born professor of English literature, Easwaran in 1959 travelled to the USA where he taught a system of eight spiritual practices known as passage meditation (PM). Its characteristic features include its meditative focus on memorized inspirational passages and using mantram repetition as a primarily “portable” practice throughout the day. The PM method is distinctive in emphasizing the principle, otherwise neglected in the modern psychology of meditation, that “we become what we meditate on”—a principle that possesses a basis in traditional Indian sources that include the Vedas, Puranas, Adi Śaṅkara, and Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. Two major programs of empirical research have evaluated Easwaran’s practices, each publishing multiple randomized controlled trials. We summarize findings from (i) studies of the full PM program, and (ii) studies of the Mantram Repetition Program (MRP), based on three of the eight PM points. Randomized evidence links each program to reduced stress, improved mental health, improved mindfulness, and increases in various spiritual measures. We describe ways that PM/MRP empirical research has reflected Indian Psychology perspectives, and suggest that Easwaran’s legacy enriches Indian Psychology with added value in at least three ways: emphasizing the importance of the choice of meditative focus, offering universally framed support for devotional (bhakti) orientations to spirituality, and supplying tools for improving how spiritual diversity is addressed in modern institutions such as health care, schools, and other organizations.

This paper examines some of the contributions psychology is making to the study of the sacred and its role in human functioning. The focus here is not on the ontological reality of the sacred, but rather perceptions of the sacred. We suggest that psychological theory and research on this topic offers: a clarification of the meaning of the sacred; new knowledge about sanctification – the process through which people come to perceive the sacred in daily life; a response to criticisms about the scientific study of the sacred; a sharper perspective on the meanings of religion and spirituality; a method for measuring sanctification; knowledge about the ways perceptions of the sacred predict important aspects of human behavior, and; an understanding of the sacred as a product of psychological, social, institutional, cultural, and situational forces. We conclude that the sacred represents a vital phenomenon of interest for religious and spiritual study.

We introduce the topic of Indian/US collaboration in studying religion and spirituality (R/S), providing both historical and philosophical context. A fully in-depth and comprehensive study of R/S will require taking into account three potential types and sources of knowledge: (1) theoretically and intellectually oriented knowledge as exemplified by William James; (2) empirically oriented knowledge as exemplified by Gordon Allport; and (3) experience- and realization-derived knowledge based on reports from eminent spiritual figures. We sketch the distinct but mutually informative challenges of clinical and epistemic integration. We suggest several topics for future collaboration, arguing that the most comprehensive study of R/S will require combining the western attention to empirical knowledge with the Indian psychology movement’s attention to realization-derived knowledge. Suggested topics include processes of learning from spiritual exemplars and teachers; health effects from engagement in Hindu or other Indian religious practice; psychological and health effects of specific spiritual practices; the importance and influence of the focus used in meditation; the effects of japam, Ramnam, or similar repeated short prayers; how diverse spiritual practices affect mindfulness; and the nature and means of fostering skills for living in a religiously plural society.

This chapter reviews theories and empirical evidence on relations between individually measured religion and/or spirituality (R/S), and mortality, physical morbidity, and disability. Most studies have relied on frameworks that recognize a potential causative influence of R/S on health that is mediated through factors such as health behaviors, social support, mental health, and distinctively religious/spiritual methods of coping with stress.

This chapter reviews theories and empirical evidence on the associations between religion and spirituality (R/S) and public health education, promotion, and intervention – the public health subfield concentrations of about one-sixth of public health students nationwide. We discuss literature related to health programming at R/S sites, spiritually tailored treatments in healthcare settings, R/S interventions in workplaces, and meditation and mindfulness as spiritual interventions.

This chapter is the first of thirteen reviews in this volume providing a public health perspective on the empirical evidence relating religion and spirituality (R/S) to physical and mental health. This chapter emphasizes an essentially epidemiologic perspective, reviewings evidence bearing on a “generic” model of how an individual’s engagement in religion/spirituality may causally affect that individual’s health through pathways that include health behaviors, social connections and support, ability to draw upon distinctively religious/spiritual methods of coping, and mental health. In US-based and often in international and non-Western samples, R/S factors tend to correlate with healthier profiles on social connections, health behaviors, substance abuse, mental health, and psychological well-being. R/S coping is multidimensional and adds incremental predictiveness beyond measures of secular coping. Hundreds of studies link positive R/S coping to better adjustment, and negative forms of R/S coping to worse adjustment.

This chapter reviews theories and empirical evidence on relations between religion and spirituality (R/S) and environmental health, a public health subfield and field of concentration that draws slightly less than one-tenth of public health students nationwide.

This chapter reviews theories and empirical evidence on relations between religion and spirituality (R/S) and infectious diseases, issues especially relevant to the laboratory-based field of concentration of 2%–3% of public health students nationwide. We discuss six lines of R/S-health evidence pertaining to immune competence , immunization, infection risk behavior, rates of infection, adherence to treatments for infections, and programs for prevention or treatment.

This chapter describes background and methods used in a set of 13 empirical review chapters contained in Part I of this volume (chapters “ Model of Individual Health Effects from Religion/Spirituality: Supporting Evidence”, “ Religious/Spiritual Effects on Physical Morbidity and Mortality”, Social and Community-Level Factors in Health Effects from Religion/Spirituality”, “ Social Identity and Discrimination in Religious/Spiritual Influences on Health”, “ Environmental Health Sciences, Religion, and Spirituality”, “ Infectious Diseases, Religion, and Spirituality”, “ Public Health Nutrition, Religion, and Spirituality”, “ Maternal/Child Health, Religion, and Spirituality”, “ Health Policy and Management, Religion, and Spirituality”, “ Public Health Education, Promotion, and Intervention: Relevance of Religion and Spirituality”, “ Mental Health, Religion, and Spirituality”, “ Clinical Practice, Religion, and Spirituality” and “ Weighing the Evidence: What is Revealed by 100+ Meta-Analyses and Systematic Reviews of Religion/Spirituality and Health?”).

This chapter describes a compact (9 week, 18 hour) evidence-based course on religious/spiritual (R/S) factors and public health that has been offered with success for nearly a decade at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health. We describe a logical sequence of topics and readings that convey the public health importance and key ideas of the R/S-health field, while maintaining respectful stance toward diverse student beliefs. Weekly readings initially focus on (1) conceptual introductions; (2) examples of empirical health research on religious involvement; and (3) examples of empirical health research on spiritual practices. Attention then turns to (4) mechanisms underlying R/S-health effects, (5) weighing the evidence through meta-analyses, systematic reviews, and in other ways, (6) clinical applications, (7) public health applications, and finally (8) worldviews and science/religion dialogue. Pedagogy, assignments, grading, and student reactions are discussed, along with the role that similar courses might play in school-level strategies for teaching about religious/spiritual factors and public health.

This chapter reviews theories and empirical evidence on relations between religion and spirituality (R/S), social identity, and discrimination by race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, and religious tradition. We also examine health-supportive (salutogenic) processes arising from social identities linked to each characteristic. Religion and spirituality are conceived as evolving over time and residing at both collective and individual levels. Each type of discrimination has been linked to poorer health outcomes.

This chapter reviews the more than 100 meta-analyses and systematic reviews of relations between religion/spirituality (R/S) and health that have been published in refereed journals, a far larger number than is generally recognized. The 118 published reviews identified by 2017 were categorized as quantitative meta-analyses (n = 33), qualitative meta-syntheses (n = 7), meta-analyses of case studies (n = 1), or simple systematic reviews (n = 77). They addressed a wide range of substantive topics relevant to every major public health subfield, and incorporated a mean of 33.5 studies per review. Collectively authored by more than 200 distinct individuals, the reviews were published in 83 different journals, 20 in the category of public health. Multiple reviews were published by 14 journals, a majority possessing impact factors above 2.0. Reviewing empirical studies of R/S-health is clearly a very broad-based enterprise not limited to a few individuals or journals. Collectively, the reviews greatly strengthen the case, based on Hill’s criteria, that R/S exerts a causative influence on health. The case for causal influence may now be compelling, and in most cases R/S involvement is associated with better health, although negative associations also exist. Further investigation is warranted to explore the possibility that R/S is a “fundamental cause” of health that maintains an association even when intervening mediating pathways change. This possibility is consistent with the dynamic understandings of R/S presented elsewhere in this volume.

This chapter reviews theories and empirical evidence on religion and spirituality (R/S) as factors relevant to maternal and child health, the field of concentration of about 3% of public health students nationwide.

This present chapter concludes a 28 chapter volume on the relevance of religion and spirituality (R/S) to the field of public health. The volume contains 13 empirical reviews of R/S-health relations (Part I), two chapters addressing practical implications of R/S for public health (Part II), and eight chapters on how R/S factors have been incorporated into public health education and training offered at US-based schools and colleges of public health (Part III).

This chapter reviews theories and empirical evidence on religion and spirituality (R/S) as factors relevant to public health nutrition, the field of concentration of about 3% of public health students nationwide. We discuss R/S-health evidence pertaining to fruit, vegetable, and fat intake, overweight status, eating disorders , and fasting and cholesterol.

This chapter reviews theories and empirical evidence on religious and spiritual (R/S) factors in clinical medicine. Conducting spiritual assessments is required in some settings by The Joint Commission for accreditation of healthcare organizations. Available published literature suggests that several dimensions of R/S predict better adherence to HIV treatment.

This chapter reviews theories and empirical evidence on relations between religion and spirituality (R/S) and variables of interest to health policy and management, a public health subfield of concentration for about one-fifth of public health students nationwide. R/S factors may affect health through pathways including health behaviors, social support, psycholog ical states, and religious/spiritual coping, either favorably or adversely.

To date, most empirical research on religion/spirituality and health, like most other health research, has been conducted in the United States or other western countries. Earlier sections of this volume have explicated the public health releva nce of religion and spirituality with a corresponding western emphasis. But religion and spirituality are very much global phenomena, and their connections to health possess global relevance. To put religion/spirituality and public health issues in global context, this chapter undertakes four tasks. First, we set out the emerging relevance of religion/spirituality to global agencies and organizations such as the World Health Organization and the United Nations. Second, we briefly note conceptual frameworks articulated earlier in this volume that possess global relevance and are corroborated by findings from outside western societies. Third, to offer a ground-level view of how R/S and public health profoundly intersect, we offer six evidence-informed anecdotes or “snapshots” of such intersections: (1) Health assets and the global relevance of salutogenic approaches; (2) Religion as both a problem and a solution with regard to female genital mutilation; (3) Religion as a doorway to understanding multiple worldviews in the Ebola epidemic; (4) The complex interplay of religion and HIV in Africa; (5) Religion as a purveyor of persuasive health information, and a valuable collaborator; (6) Religion and the global need for palliative care.

This chapter introduces the volume’s Part III, which contains chapter-length portraits of how seven top schools of public health are addressing religious/spiritual (R/S) factors in their educational offerings. This chapter also reports findings from national surveys of public health graduate students (n = 980) and public health school leaders (e.g., deans, n = 24).The history of public health teaching about religious/spiritual factors can be traced back several decades, but only now, with the emergence of a large and rapidly expanding inter-disciplinary empirical research literature on R/S and health, does the topic appear poised and ready for widespread inclusion in public health education. Completed surveys about R/S and health were obtained from 980 public health graduate students from 24 US-based schools and colleges of public health. A majority (53%) believed that R/S-health topics received too little coverage in their public health education. Respondents who had received more frequent educational exposure to evidence about relations of R/S factors with disease and longevity were significantly more likely to believe that R/S factors should receive coverage in public health training that is similar to the coverage of other well-established health factors. Similarly, of 24 deans or dean-designated respondents to a public health school leader survey, a large majority (20/24) agreed that evidence about R/S-health relations should be included in public health education. Enunciation of formal professional competency lists would be premature. But many resources are available to academic public health educators who wish to start new efforts or refine existing ones, including the seven following chapters.

This chapter introduces the book Why Religion and Spirituality Matter for Public Health: Evidence, Implications, and Resources. More than 3000 empirical studies 100 systematic reviews have been published on relations of religion and/or spirituality (R/S) with health, but R/S factors remain neglected in public health teaching and research. R.S reflects ultimate concern that taps deep motivations, and R/S typically encourages stewardship of health, so its health-relevance is unsurprising from a behavioral motivation perspective. R/S engagement also commonly fosters social support and access to distinctive methods of coping with stress, elements of a “generic model” of how R/S influences health. Predominantly favorable relations suggest that R/S might be a fundamental cause of health, but R/S factors also sometimes correlate unfavorably with risk factors or poorer health. Part I of this volume contains 14 chapters that review evidence on R/S-health relations from the perspectives of major subfields of public health that include social factors, nutrition, infectious diseases, environmental health, maternal/child health, health policy and management, public health education and promotion, mental health, and clinical practice. Part II contains two chapters that address implications for public health practice, emphasizing community-based health promotion, health policy advocacy, and healthcare systems and management. The eight chapters in Part III offer resources for public health educators, including narratives of how R/S-health relations have been taught in schools of public health at universities that include Emory, Harvard, University of California at Berkeley, Boston University, University of Michigan, Drexel University, and University of Illinois at Chicago. A concluding chapter offers international perspectives.

This chapter introduces a set of 13 empirical review chapters contained in Part I of this volume. Each review focuses on relations between religious and spiritual (R/S) factors and health variables. This present chapter explains the reviews’ collective purpose, distinctive public health focus, and common structure. The first of these reviews (chapter “ Model of Individual Health Effects from Religion/Spirituality: Supporting Evidence”) examines evidence that supports a widely used generic model of the effects of R/S on individual health. Next is a review of R/S effects on morbidity and mortality (chapter “ Religious/Spiritual Effects on Physical Morbidity and Mortality”). After that, the next two review chapters focus on R/S and social factors, such as socioeconomic status and income inequality (chapter “ Social and Community-Level Factors in Health Effects from Religion/Spirituality”) and social identity and discrimination (chapter “ Social Identity and Discrimination in Religious/Spiritual Influences on Health”). Then, the next seven review chapters examine evidence relevant to major public health subfields: nutrition, infectious diseases, environmental health, maternal/child health, health policy and management, public health education and promotion, mental health, and clinical practice. Drawing on data from the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH), each subfield is contextualized in relation to proportions of enrolled students in US schools of public health.

This chapter reviews theories and empirical evidence on relations between religion and spirituality (R/S) and social factors. Religion and spirituality are conceived as evolving over time and residing at both collective and individual levels.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a serious mental health condition that affects physical health. However, many military veterans with PTSD refuse or drop out of commonly used trauma-focused, evidence-based treatments. Growing research supports the value of spiritual components in diverse type

In Spirituality and Aging, Robert Atchley addresses the challenging task of describing and understanding the spiritual lives of older adults, where spirituality is understood broadly as “a region o...

We report psychometric properties, correlates, and underlying theory of the Spiritual Modeling Self-Efficacy (SMSE) scale. The SMSE, the first spiritually oriented selfefficacy measure, is a 10-item self-report assessment of perceived efficacy for learning from spiritual models. Spiritual models are defined as community-based or prominent people who function for respondents as exemplars of spiritual qualities, such as compassion, self-control, or faith. Demographic, spiritual, and personality correlates were examined in a racially and ethnically diverse sample of college students from California, Connecticut, and Tennessee (N 1,012). SMSE total scores demonstrated good 7-week test–retest reliability (r .77), patterns of correlation supporting convergent, divergent, and criterion-related validity, demographic differences in expected directions, and substantial individual heterogeneity. Factor analyses revealed two correlated subscales corresponding to community-based and prominent models (internal reliabilities .85). Previous randomized studies of college students have demonstrated that psychosocial interventions can enhance SMSE scores. Implications are discussed for research and for pastoral, educational, and health applications.

Psychological qualities of central interest to religion and spirituality, including virtues such as love, are drawing increasing scientific attention. One recent large-scale research initiative funded by Fetzer Institute focused on compassionate love (CL), an other-centred form of love with recognisable analogues in all major faith traditions. We review findings and impacts from 55 peer-reviewed publications generated by 31 projects funded since 2001. We examine major findings, the role in each study of spirituality/religion, and whether the article cited previous CL literature or used CL terminology. Studies varied greatly in how they operationalised CL. Evidence supported numerous antecedents and consequences of CL. Trend analyses indicated that CL terms are increasingly cited in scientific literature. We suggest future directions for CL research, and identify challenges and opportunities likely to generalise to scientific research initiatives in other fields related to religious/spiritual qualities.

Spirituality and religion are topics of increasing interest in U.S. society and popular culture as well for many health professions, including medicine, psychology, and public health. This article comments on Mark Graves’ (2008) synthesis of science and spirituality/religion, Mind, Brain, and the Elusive Soul from the perspective of a public health professional. I briefly review the sources, extent, and conceptual approaches of emerging scientific and health interest in spirituality/religion. Spiritual practices are identified as phenomena of central interest. Major concepts of Graves’ synthesis are reviewed, and the soul’s relevance to spiritual growth, popular culture, and scientific application is discussed. Several questions are posed as a stimulus to further extension and refinement of Graves’ synthesis.

An emerging scientific literature is investigating the construct of “compassionate love,” love that is “centered on the good of the other,” a construct empirically linked to physical and mental health. We evaluated effects of an 8-week, 16-hour programme for physicians, nurses, chaplains, and other health professionals, using nonsectarian, spiritually based, self-management tools. Participants were randomised to intervention (n = 30) or wait-list (n = 31). Pretest, post-test, 8- and 19-week follow-up data were gathered on six measures of prosocial qualities. Favorable treatment effects (p

This commentary describes a multidimensional approach that underlies much recent empirical research on religion and spirituality (RS) and health. Each faith tradition possesses its own particularities, and common facets shared with other traditions as a coherent resemblance. Taxonomies of RS dimensions vary from being coarse grained to fine grained. The most useful taxonomy depends upon the particular research question. Fine-grained measures may more easily document particularistic facets. However, fine-grained measures can obscure common facets, which are sometimes usefully assessed by moderate- or coarse-grained measures. Full understanding requires the scientific study of both common and particularistic facets. In light of these conceptions, seven RS scales critiqued by Glicksman are analyzed for problematic themes that may obscure particularistic facets.

Relational caregiving skills remain seldom studied in health professionals. We evaluated effects on health professional relational caregiving self-efficacy from an eight-week, 16-hour training in self-management tools. Physicians, nurses, chaplains, and other health professionals were randomized after pretest to treatment ( n = 30) or waiting list ( n = 31). Training used a previously researched program of Easwaran (1991/1978) derived from spiritual wisdom traditions. Changes were measured using a 34-item caregiving self-efficacy scale. Positive effects were observed at posttest, eight- and 19-week follow-up ( ds = .38, .47, .37, all ps < .05), and were mediated by adherence to practices and stress reductions ( p < .05), findings also obtained in qualitative interviews ( n = 24). Evidence suggests this program enhances health professional caregiving self-efficacy, and may merit inclusion in training curricula.

Educators from grade school to college have long taught about religion in fields such as history and social studies. By affirming the importance of religion and spirituality (RS) in the lives of people worldwide, such RS teaching may support and reinforce student assimilation of virtues and character strengths from their families or other committed sources of RS. Growing evidence for health benefit from RS practices has recently encouraged some physicians to support patients in using RS methods of coping with illness. We describe an integrated college course about RS and well-being. Using a social cognitive and spiritual modeling approach, the course includes not only standard academic content but also a practical component, analogous to a laboratory section or to training in applied professional skills. We discuss how this approach could be adapted to various academic or applied settings. Course effectiveness is supported by empirical outcome studies reported elsewhere. Where is the wisdom we have lost i...

There has been great interest in determining if mindfulness can be cultivated and if this cultivation leads to well-being. The current study offers preliminary evidence that at least one aspect of mindfulness, measured by the Mindful Attention and Awareness Scale (MAAS; K. W. Brown & R. M. Ryan, 2003), can be cultivated and does mediate positive outcomes. Further, adherence to the practices taught during the meditation-based interventions predicted positive outcomes. College undergraduates were randomly allocated between training in two distinct meditation-based interventions, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR; J. Kabat-Zinn, 1990; n=15) and E. Easwaran's (1978/1991) Eight Point Program (EPP; n=14), or a waitlist control (n=15). Pretest, posttest, and 8-week follow-up data were gathered on self-report outcome measures. Compared to controls, participants in both treatment groups (n=29) demonstrated increases in mindfulness at 8-week follow-up. Further, increases in mindfulness mediated reductions in perceived stress and rumination. These results suggest that distinct meditation-based practices can increase mindfulness as measured by the MAAS, which may partly mediate benefits. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Effects of two meditation and mindfulness-based spiritual interventions were examined in college undergraduates (N=44). Compared to a control group, both interventions decreased negative religious coping (d=−0.80, p

The authors evaluated an 8-week, 2-hr per week training for physicians, nurses, chaplains, and other health professionals using nonsectarian, spiritually based self-management tools based on passage meditation (E. Easwaran, 1978/1991). Participants were randomized to intervention (n = 27) or waiting list (n = 31). Pretest, posttest, and 8- and 19-week follow-up data were gathered on 8 measures, including perceived stress, burnout, mental health, and psychological well-being. Aggregated across examinations, beneficial treatment effects were observed on stress (p = .0013) and mental health (p = .03). Treatment effects on stress were mediated by adherence to practices (p = .05). Stress reductions remained large at 19 weeks (84% of the pretest standard deviation, p = .006). Evidence suggests this program reduces stress and may enhance mental health.

White, Black, Latina, and Asian mothers (n = 6929) were compared on aspects of mother-daughter communication about sex. Non-Whites reported higher discomfort. Latinas and Asians were least likely to have discussed sex but most likely to know daughters' sexual status. The converse was observed for Black mothers. Research on the influence of ethnicity on adolescent sexual behavior may inform the design of more effective interventions to reduce sexual risk behavior.

Aim. This paper reports a study assessing the usefulness of a mantram repetition programme. Background. Complementary/alternative therapies are becoming commonplace, but more research is needed to assess their benefits. A 5-week programme teaching a ‘mind–body–spiritual’ technique of silently repeating a mantram – a word or phrase with spiritual meaning – to manage stress was developed. A mantram was chosen by individuals, who were taught to repeat it silently throughout the day or night to interrupt unwanted thoughts and elicit the relaxation response. Methods. Participants who attended a 5-week course were invited to participate in the study. Of those who consented, a randomly selected subset (n = 66) was contacted approximately 3 months after the course for a telephone interview using the critical incident interviewing technique. Participants were asked whether the intervention was helpful or not, and if helpful, to identify situations where it was applied. Interviews were transcribed and incidents were identified and categorized to create a taxonomy of uses. The data were collected in 2001–2002. Results. Participants included 30 veterans, mostly males (97%), and 36 hospital employees, mostly females (86%). Mean age was 56 years (sd = 12·94). Fifty-five participants (83·3%) practiced the technique and reported 147 incidents where the programme was helpful. Outcomes were organized into a taxonomy of incidents using four major categories that included managing: (a) emotions other than stress (51%); (b) stress (23·8%); (c) insomnia (12·9%); and (d) unwanted thoughts (12·3%). A group of raters reviewed the categories for inter-rater reliability. Conclusions. The majority of participants from two distinct samples reported that the mantram programme was helpful in a variety of situations. The critical incident interviewing method was found to be practical, efficient, and thorough in collecting and analyzing data. Such qualitative methods contribute to understanding the benefits of mind–body complementary therapies.