Abstract
Religion and spirituality (R/S) have been linked to better physical and mental health. The US government has funded several research studies that include a focus on R/S but the amount of support over the last several years appears to be declining. To better understand these funding trends for R/S and health research, we chose relevant comparisons from projects that include a focus on social support and optimism. We identified total amount of funding, change in funding patterns over time, and characteristics of funded projects from a large database of US research projects (Federal RePORTER). We reviewed 5093 projects for social support and 6030 projects for optimism before narrowing the number of eligible studies to 170 and 13, respectively. Social support projects received the largest investment of $205 million dollars. Funded awards for social support and optimism remained stable over time while R/S decreased (p = 0.01), intervention research was more characteristic and studies of African-American/Black participants were less characteristic of funded projects in social support than of R/S (ps < 0.001). Future research for R/S and health would likely benefit from continued focus on minority communities and on identifying and developing appropriate interventions to support individual and community health and well-being.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Balboni, T. A., VanderWeele, T. J., Doan-Soares, S. D., Long, K. N. G., Ferrell, B. R., Fitchett, G., Koenig, H. G., Bain, P. A., Puchalski, C., Steinhauser, K. E., Sulmasy, D. P., & Koh, H. K. (2022). Spirituality in serious illness and health. Journal of the American Medical Association, 328(2), 184–197. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2022.11086
Campesino, M., & Schwartz, G. E. (2006). Spirituality among Latinas/os: Implications of culture in conceptualization and measurement. Advances in Nursing Science, 29(1), 69–81. https://doi.org/10.1097/00012272-200601000-00007
Czajkowski, S. M., Powell, L. H., Adler, N., Naar-King, S., Reynolds, K. D., Hunter, C. M., Laraia, B., Olster, D. H., Perna, F. M., Peterson, J. C., Epel, E., Boyington, J. E., & Charlson, M. E. (2015). From ideas to efficacy: The ORBIT model for developing behavioral treatments for chronic diseases. Health Psychology, 34(10), 971–982. https://doi.org/10.1037/hea0000161
Eckersley, R. M. (2007). Culture, spirituality, religion and health: Looking at the big picture. Medical Journal of Australia, 186, S54–S56.
Gillum, F., & Griffith, D. M. (2010). Prayer and spiritual practices for health reasons among American adults: The role of race and ethnicity. Journal of Religion and Health, 49(3), 283–295. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-009-9249-7
Holt, C. L., Schulz, E., & Wynn, T. A. (2009). Perceptions of the religion–health connection among African Americans in the southeastern United States: Sex, age, and urban/rural differences. Health Education and Behavior, 36(1), 62–80. https://doi.org/10.1177/1090198107303314
Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research. (2021). The carnegie classification of institutions of higher education. https://carnegieclassifications.iu.edu/classification_descriptions/basic.php
Jensen, E., Jones, N., & Rabe, M. (2021). The chance that two people chosen at random are of different race or ethnicity groups has increased since 2010. United States Census Bureau.
Levin, J. (2001). Etiology recapitulates ontology: Reflections on restoring the spiritual dimension to models of the determinants of health. Subtle Energies & Energy Medicine, 12(1), 17–37.
Levin, J. (2017). “For they knew not what it was”: Rethinking the tacit narrative history of religion and health research. Journal of Religion and Health, 56(1), 28–46. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-016-0325-5
Lipka, M., & Gecewicz, C. (2017). More Americans now say they’re spiritual but not religious. Pew Research Center. Retrieved 7 Feb from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/09/06/more-americans-now-say-theyre-spiritual-but-not-religious/
Onken, L. S., Carroll, K. M., Shoham, V., Cuthbert, B. N., & Riddle, M. (2014). Reenvisioning clinical science: Unifying the discipline to improve the public health. Clinical Psychological Science, 2(1), 22–34. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702613497932
Page, M. J., McKenzie, J. E., Bossuyt, P. M., Boutron, I., Hoffmann, T. C., Mulrow, C. D., Shamseer, L., Tetzlaff, J. M., Akl, E. A., Brennan, S. E., Chou, R., Glanville, J., Grimshaw, J. M., Hróbjartsson, A., Lalu, M. M., Li, T., Loder, E. W., Mayo-Wilson, E., McDonald, S., … Moher, D. (2021). The PRISMA 2020 statement: An updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews. British Medical Journal, 372, n71. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n71
Park, C. L., & Slattery, J. M. (2024). Religiousness and spirituality in health. In T. W. Smith & N. Anderson (Eds.), APA handbook of health psychology (Vol. 1). American Psychological Association.
Park, C. L., Sherman, A. C., Jim, H. S. L., & Salsman, J. M. (2015). Religion/spirituality and health in the context of cancer: Cross-domain integration, unresolved issues, and future directions. Cancer, 121(21), 3789–3794. https://doi.org/10.1002/cncr.29351
Park, C. L., Masters, K. S., Salsman, J. M., Wachholtz, A., Clements, A. D., Salmoirago-Blotcher, E., Trevino, K., & Wischenka, D. M. (2017). Advancing our understanding of religion and spirituality in the context of behavioral medicine. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 40(1), 39–51. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-016-9755-5
Park, C. L., George, J. R., Awao, S., Carney, L. M., Batt, S., & Salsman, J. M. (2022). U.S. federal investment in religiousness/spirituality and health research: A systematic review. Religions, 13(8), 725.
Pew Research Center. (2017a). Importance of religion in one's life. Retrieved 7 Feb from https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/religious-landscape-study/importance-of-religion-in-ones-life/
Pew Research Center. (2017b). Racial and ethnic composition. Retrieved 7 Feb from https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/religious-landscape-study/racial-and-ethnic-composition/
Pew Research Center. (2022). Key findings from the Global Religious Futures Project. Retrieved 7 Feb from https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2022/12/21/key-findings-from-the-global-religious-futures-project/
Rasmussen, H., Scheier, M., & Greenhouse, J. (2009). Optimism and physical health: A meta-analytic review. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 37(3), 239–256. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-009-9111-x
Reblin, M., & Uchino, B. N. (2008). Social and emotional support and its implication for health. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 21(2), 201–205. https://doi.org/10.1097/YCO.0b013e3282f3ad89
Sanchez, M., Dillon, F., Ruffin, B., & De La Rosa, M. (2012). The influence of religious coping on the acculturative stress of recent Latino immigrants. Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work, 21(3), 200. https://doi.org/10.1080/15313204.2012.700443
Schiavon, C. C., Marchetti, E., Gurgel, L. G., Busnello, F. M., & Reppold, C. T. (2016). Optimism and hope in chronic disease: A systematic review. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 2022. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.02022
Schwarzer, R., & Leppin, A. (1989). Social support and health: A meta-analysis. Psychology and Health, 3(1), 1–15.
Siddaway, A. P., Wood, A. M., & Hedges, L. V. (2019). How to do a systematic review: A best practice guide for conducting and reporting narrative reviews, meta-analyses, and meta-syntheses. Annual Review of Psychology, 70, 747–770. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010418-102803
Taylor, R. J., Chatters, L. M., & Jackson, J. S. (2007). Religious and spiritual involvement among older African Americans, Caribbean Blacks, and Non-Hispanic Whites: Findings from the National Survey of American Life. Journals of Gerontology Series b: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 62(4), S238–S250.
Vanderweele, T. J. (2017). Religion and health: A synthesis. In M. J. Balboni & J. R. Peteet (Eds.), Spirituality and religion within the culture of medicine: From evidence to practice (pp. 357–402). Oxford University Press.
Wang, J., Mann, F., Lloyd-Evans, B., Ma, R., & Johnson, S. (2018). Associations between loneliness and perceived social support and outcomes of mental health problems: A systematic review. BioMed Central Psychiatry, 18(1), 156. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-018-1736-5
Funding
This publication is supported by the John Templeton Foundation (Award Number 61127). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the John Templeton Foundation.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
JMS and CLP conceived of and designed the study. Material preparation and data collection were performed by SB. Data abstraction and coding were performed by JMS and CLP, SA and JRG. Analysis was performed by JMS. The first draft of the manuscript was written by JMS. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript, read, and approved the final manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest relevant to this research.
Ethical Approval
For this type of study, formal consent is not required. This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.
Consent to Participate and Publication
This study does not involve human participants. Therefore, neither informed consent nor consent to publish was required.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Salsman, J.M., Awao, S., George, J.R. et al. Placing the US Federal Investment in Religion, Spirituality, and Health Research in Context: A Systematic Review and Comparison with Social Support and Optimism Funding Levels. J Relig Health 63, 393–409 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-023-01973-7
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-023-01973-7