Religiousness and help seeking: Individual, congregational, and clergy factors

ABSTRACT

Religious individuals are less likely to seek psychotherapy than nonreligious individuals, but few studies have looked at factors that may facilitate or hinder help seeking in these individuals. Using the Theory of Planned Behavior as a lens, we examined individual, congregational, and clergy factors related to help seeking among Christian individuals. Multi-level models using data from 239 participants from 14 randomly selected Christian congregations suggest that congregant religiousness and the frequency at which clergy spoke about mental health were related to help-seeking intentions and attitudes. Furthermore, the availability of mental health programming was related to a decrease in reported depression in the congregation. These results highlight the important role that clergy play in influencing their congregations’ treatment seeking behaviors. Together, mental health advocates, psychotherapists, and clergy may work together to improve the mental health of their communities.

KEYWORDS:

• Religion
• help seeking
• theory of planned behavior
• congregation
• multi-level modelling

Clinical impact statement

We asked, “why do religious individuals seek psychotherapy less often than non-religious individuals?” Data suggested that the way clergy discuss psychotherapy influenced congregants’ attitudes and intentions toward seeking psychotherapy. Together, these findings suggest that therapists may effectively work with clergy to provide more accurate and encouraging information to their congregants about psychotherapy.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Virginia Bellingrath, Darcy Boardman, Belin Manalle, Rachel Novak, Jackie Paiz, Caroline Daly Penny, Rhiannon Rainey, Mattie Smith, Kayle Thorson, and Sarah Towne for their assistance in data collection.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no funding and declare no conflicts of interest. Data may be obtained from the corresponding author for replication