The following is a summary of “Spirituality and anxiety in pastoral care workers and physicians in the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic,” published in the March 2024 issue of Psychiatry by Culmann et al.
The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the need for mental health support for healthcare workers who faced significant psychological strain.
Researchers conducted a retrospective study examining whether spirituality, measured through transpersonal trust, could buffer anxiety in doctors and hospital chaplains and compare it to other coping resources like the sense of coherence, optimism, and resilience.
They surveyed a sample of 405 participants, including 151 pastoral care workers and 254 physicians, who filled out an online questionnaire (April 20th and July 5th, 2020) encompassing validated scales for anxiety, transpersonal trust, sense of coherence, and resilience.
The results showed no statistically significant negative correlation between transpersonal trust and anxiety in either profession or when analyzed by occupational group. Sense of coherence was found to inversely predict generalized anxiety, whereas transpersonal trust, resilience, and optimism did not. As hypothesized, the relationship between transpersonal trust and anxiety was moderated by a sense of coherence, yet the anticipated protective effect of transpersonal trust against anxiety could not be confirmed.
Investigators concluded that a sense of coherence emerged as the most vital buffer against anxiety, revealing a complex interplay between spirituality, transpersonal trust, and emotional well-being.
Source: frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1354044/full
