The Relationship Between Spirituality, Health Beliefs, and Health Behaviors in College Students

The United States is a country in which religion and spirituality play a significant role in people’s lives. The relationship between religion, spirituality and health has long been investigated. However, most of these studies have focused only on patient populations and the elderly. The present study examines whether the same pattern of relations reported earlier is seen in a sample of healthy, college students using measures of both spirituality and religion. Health beliefs and behaviors were also examined. The results show that individuals with higher spirituality scores are more active and hold difference health beliefs than those who scored in the low spirituality group. However, some contradictions from previous research were reported in this sample. The study suggests religion may have some different pattern of relations in the overall health and health behaviors of younger, healthier populations.