Religious support and psychological functioning in a Polish sample

Abstract

ABSTRACT Catholicism is the predominant religion in Poland, but formal religious participation has decreased in recent years. Given this decline, we examined the current relevance of religious support (i.e., support perceived from church leaders, fellow Catholics, and God) to psychological functioning among Polish Catholics. We translated the Religious Support Scale (RSS) into Polish and examined two Polish Catholic samples. In Study 1, we examined the Polish RSS’s internal structure via exploratory factor analyses and assessed reliability. Based on favourable results, we examined religious support’s association with psychological functioning, controlling for instrinsic religiousness. Religious support remained significantly associated with psychological well-being after controlling for religiousness. In Study 2, we further supported the Polish RSS’s reliability, factorial validity, and convergent validity. Moreover, religious support remained significantly related to well-being even after controlling social support variance, further suggesting that religious support continues to be relevant among Polish Catholics.