宗教行為對心理幸福感與利社會行為之影響：以靈性為中介變項

An Empirical Investigation of Religious Behavior's Influence on Prosocial Behavior and Psychological Well-Being with Spirituality as a Mediating Variable

現有文獻中有關宗教對心理健康效益方面的研究常有分歧報導，本研究將宗教信仰擴大為包括宗教行為（religious behaviors）與靈性光景（spirituality）兩大面向，而心理健康特質則建構為心理幸福感（psychological well-being）與利社會行為（prosocial behavior）兩大面向。在三階段跨全台灣所進行的大學生問卷調查過程中，取得有效樣本412名大學一般生，區分為佛教，基督教，民間信仰及無宗教信仰四大不同宗教信仰組群。變異數分析與共變數結構矩陣分析產生出的統計數字作為本研究進行推論時所依據的基礎。變異數分析結果顯示自陳宗教信仰取向在宗教行為與靈性程度上有明顯的差異，在心理幸福感上的效果較弱，在利社會行為上則完全沒有差異。共變數結構矩陣分析結果顯示，宗教行為對利社會行為有直接因果關係，也有透過靈性光景為中介的間接因果關係。本研究提出以靈性光景代表宗教信仰建構的最後模式顯示，宗教信仰與利社會行為之間的關係其實是一個透過以心理幸福感為中介的強間接因果關係，並無直接因果關係。

The past studies of the efficacy of religion in relation to mental health appear to have some conflicting results. The present study broadens the construct of religion to include both religious behavior and the concept of spirituality, and the construct of mental health to include psychological well-being and prosocial behavior. Three waves of questionnaire data were collected across Taiwan, resulting in a final sample of 412 full-time Taiwanese college students classified into four self-reported religious orientations: Buddhist, Christian, Taiwanese folklore follower and no-religion. The statistical procedures of ANOVA and covariance structure analysis are used to provide the empirical basis for the conclusions. The self-reported religious orientation appears to have a strong significant effect with respect to displaying religious behavior and degree of spirituality, a weak albeit significant effect on the degree of psychological well-being, and virtually no significant effect on prosocial behavior. The results from covariance structure analysis indicate that both the direct effect of religious behavior on prosocial behavior and the indirect effect through spirituality on prosocial behavior have gained empirical support. The religious behavior factor seems unable to account for the psychological well-being aspect of mental health. When the religion construct is replaced by the spirituality concept alone, a strong indirect link between religion and prosocial behavior is found through the mediating effect of psychological well-being. There is no direct causal relationship found between spirituality and prosocial behavior.