Relationship between daily spiritual experience and wellness in adulthood

Abstract

There is substantial literature that relates spirituality to a better mental and physical health. Lithuania is a post-Soviet country, where several generations grew up within the context of suppressed religiousness. So a question arises: Is the spirituality-health (wellness) relationship valid in Lithuanian context? Methods: 400 Lithuanian adults, 168 (42%) males and 232 (58%) females, mean age 40.6, participated in this study and completed Five Factor Wellness Inventory (5F-WEL, Myers, Sweeney, 2005) and The Daily Spiritual Experience Scale (DSES, Underwood, Teresi, 2002). Results: Spirituality was significantly related to a healthy lifestyle both in males and females. Even when with age some decrease in wellness was observed, adults with higher spirituality scores till reported higher scores of wellness. However, multiple regression analysis revealed that age and spirituality explained for only about 13% of variance. Conclusion: Spirituality has a significant positive but weak impact on health-oriented lifestyle during adulthood.