Citation

Sansone RA, Kelley AR, Forbis JS. Int. J. Soc. Psychiatry 2013; 59(8): 739-744.

Affiliation

Wright State University, School of Medicine, Dayton, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0020764012454383

PMID

22875426

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Bullying in childhood is ubiquitous and associated with a number of identified negative outcomes in both childhood and adulthood. However, the relationship between being bullied in childhood and religious/spiritual status in adulthood has never been explored. METHOD: Using a cross-sectional sample of 324 consecutive internal medicine outpatients and a survey methodology, we examined relationships between 'When you were growing up, were you ever a victim of bullying?' and (1) self-perceived extent of religiosity/spirituality and (2) religiosity/spirituality as assessed by scores on the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-Being Scale (FACIT-Sp-12). RESULTS: While bullying status in childhood was not related to either the self-perceived extent of religiosity or spirituality, it did evidence negative statistically significant relationships with seven of 12 FACIT-Sp-12 scales, as well as the overall composite score. CONCLUSIONS: According to these data, bullying in childhood is associated with lower religious/spiritual well-being in adulthood; however, this study was not designed to examine a causal relationship.

Language: en