Perceptions of Dignity, Attachment to God, and Mental Health in a National US Sample

Dignity is a human characteristic equated with real worth, a sense of moral and social personhood, and should have clear links to mental well-being. Empirical work on perceived dignity is relatively scant, but it stands to reason that one source of dignity might be gathered through religion/spirituality, especially through one’s relationship with God or a divine power. In this study, we test whether attachment to God may protect against the hypothesized negative mental health consequences of having low perceptions of dignity. Using nationally representative data from the 2017 Baylor Religion Survey (N = 1375), we find that lower perceptions of dignity were associated with higher depression and anxiety. We found that for respondents with low self-perceptions of dignity, stronger feelings of secure attachment to God attenuated (weakened) the otherwise positive association between low dignity and greater depression and anxiety. Taken together, a secure attachment to God could lead believers to confront challenges and problems, including one’s dignity being undermined, with confidence and security. We offer future directions for research on an understudied concept in the religion and health literature.