Trust the lord with all your heart: the role of education the relationship between trust in God and well-being in later life

ABSTRACT

Trust is a primary component of faith and may be helpful for initiating, maintaining, and even repairing a relationship with God. In this study, we take up the task of expanding the empirical basis of trust in God and its relationship to well-being. Using a nationally representative sample of middle-aged and older adults from the United States, we examined whether trust in God is associated with well-being, and if this association may be conditioned by a key marker of socioeconomic status – education. Trust in God was associated with lower depressive symptoms and better self-rated health. Trust in God was more strongly associated with well-being for the less educated (high school education or less). We discuss the implications of our results for pastors and religious ministers noting the importance of trust in God as a religious construct, especially for less educated respondents.

KEYWORDS:

• Trust in God
• education
• depression
• self-rated health

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 On this point, scholars have differentiated faith in God from trust in God by centring in on the importance of resilience in the face of challenges (Howard-Snyder & McKaughan, 2022). As Howard-Snyder and McKaughan (2022) suggest, faith in God may be especially valuable when individuals experience challenges or struggles along their spiritual journey. On the surface, when a person places their faith in God, they should more likely to rely (trust) God for whatever they put their faith in God for. However, as Howard-Snyder and McKaughan (2022) note, it is faith which does most of the heavy lifting in dealing with challenges: “only faith, and not trust, disposes us to overcome challenges to relying on someone for something that matters to us. As such, only faith, and not trust, has what it takes to keep us relying … on others in the face of challenges to doing so. As such, only faith, and not trust, has what it takes to facilitate the stability out of which the security and support we need can flower” (p. 425). Accordingly, faith may be a precursor to trust and a necessary component to reap any benefits of religious/spiritual life, especially in the face of stress.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Institute of Aging [grant number: RO1 AG014749].