Religiosity/Spirituality and Mental Health: A Meta-analysis of Studies from the German-Speaking Area

The meta-analysis presented here investigates the relationship between religiosity/spirituality (R/S) and mental health based on 67 studies from the German-speaking area (Germany, Austria, Switzerland). The weighted average correlation is .03 (95% CI [.01, .05]), indicating that a greater R/S is minimally but significantly associated with better mental health. The results are moderated by the type of R/S measure: negative R/S types correlate − .20 with mental health, whereas other R/S measures exhibit small positive associations. In comparison with US-American meta-analyses, the average effect size is lower, and the associations between negative R/S types and lower mental health are particularly strong.