RT Article
T1 Changes in Sabbath-Keeping and Mental Health Over Time: Evaluation Findings From the Sabbath Living Study
JF Journal of psychology and theology
VO 50
IS 2
SP 123
OP 138
A1 Proeschold-Bell, Rae Jean
A1 Stringfield, Beth
A1 Yao, Jia
A1 Choi, Jessica
A1 Eagle, David
A1 Hybels, Celia F.
A1 Parnell, Heather
A1 Keefe, Kelly
A1 Shilling, Sara
LA English
PB Sage Publishing
YR 2022
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1800609027
AB Work-related stress is experienced at a high level in the United States. Clergy are particularly likely to over-extend themselves to act on their sacred call. Sabbath-keeping may offer a practice that is beneficial for mental health, yet many Protestant clergy do not keep a regular Sabbath. We examined whether United Methodist clergy who attended informative Sabbath-keeping workshops reported changes in spiritual well-being and mental health post-workshop. Compared to baseline, at 3 and 9 months post-workshop, participants reported an increase in Sabbath-keeping. In adjusted random effects and Poisson models, compared to not changing Sabbath-keeping frequency, increasing Sabbath-keeping was related to only one outcome: greater feelings of personal accomplishment at work. Decreasing Sabbath-keeping was related to worse anxiety symptoms, lower spiritual well-being in ministry scores, and a higher probability of having less than flourishing mental health. For four outcomes, there were no significant associations with changes in Sabbath-keeping over time. Although lacking a control group, this study adds to cross-sectional Sabbath-keeping studies by correlating changes in Sabbath-keeping with changes in mental health outcomes over time.
K1 Sabbath
K1 Mental Illness
K1 Spiritual well-being
K1 Mental Health
K1 positive psychology
K1 Intervention
DO 10.1177/00916471211046227