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Protestant Spirituality and Well-Being of People in Hong Kong: The Mediating Role of Sense of Community

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Abstract

While literature demonstrates that the relationship between religion and well-being is generally positive, information about the mechanisms is still far from clear. Two hundred and sixty-eight Chinese were recruited to examine how Protestant spirituality is related to well-being in Hong Kong. Path analysis demonstrated the complex relationship between various spirituality dimensions (religious belief, experience, and practice) and well-being variables, manifested in life satisfaction, social trust and sense of community. While spirituality may directly predict life satisfaction, the relationship between spirituality and social trust are fully mediated through sense of community. Furthermore, the well-being at the community level (feeling sense of community and social trust) appears to affect the well-being on the personal level (life satisfaction). These findings not only show that the influence of religion on people’s well-being can be richly diverse, but also match with the emerging literature on the positive effects of social capital on health and well-being.

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Notes

  1. The three indexes were used to determine the adequacy of model fit. In particular, models with NFI and CFI value at or above .95 and RMSEA values at or below .05 show an excellent fit to the data,

    while models with NFI and CFI values between .90 and .94 and RMSEA values between .06 and .10 show an adequate fit of the data. Values outsides these ranges indicate a poor fit of the model to the data.

  2. Finally, 5 non-significant direct paths were dropped one at a time when trimming. To simplify, only the fit indices of the revised model in the last step was presented.

  3. Supplementary analyses (in which life satisfaction and social trust affect spirituality dimensions via sense of community) were conducted to evaluate the model fit to the data. Nevertheless, the models provided a poorer fit to the data as compared to the Model B. To simplify, the findings of follow up analyses will only be presented to interested reader on request.

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Acknowledgments

We would also like to thank two anonymous reviewers and the editor for their comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Applied Social Science, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

    Eddie Chi Wai Ng

  2. School of Social Sciences and Psychology, Victoria University, Footscray, VIC, Australia

    Adrian T. Fisher

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  1. Eddie Chi Wai Ng
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  2. Adrian T. Fisher
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Correspondence to Eddie Chi Wai Ng.

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This paper is based on part of the first author’s doctoral thesis completed in Victoria University under the supervision of the second author. The first author is currently in the Department of Applied Social Science, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

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Ng, E.C.W., Fisher, A.T. Protestant Spirituality and Well-Being of People in Hong Kong: The Mediating Role of Sense of Community. Applied Research Quality Life 11, 1253–1267 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-015-9435-6

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