• Login
    View Item 
    •   Home
    • UMass Chan Departments, Programs and Centers
    • Population and Quantitative Health Sciences
    • Population and Quantitative Health Sciences Publications
    • View Item
    •   Home
    • UMass Chan Departments, Programs and Centers
    • Population and Quantitative Health Sciences
    • Population and Quantitative Health Sciences Publications
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Browse

    All of eScholarship@UMassChanCommunitiesPublication DateAuthorsUMass Chan AffiliationsTitlesDocument TypesKeywordsThis CollectionPublication DateAuthorsUMass Chan AffiliationsTitlesDocument TypesKeywordsProfilesView

    My Account

    LoginRegister

    Help

    AboutSubmission GuidelinesData Deposit PolicySearchingUsage StatisticsAccessibilityTerms of UseWebsite Migration FAQ

    Statistics

    Most Popular ItemsStatistics by CountryMost Popular Authors

    Altruistic social interest behaviors are associated with better mental health

    • CSV
    • RefMan
    • EndNote
    • BibTex
    • RefWorks
    Authors
    Schwartz, Carolyn E.
    Meisenhelder, Janice Bell
    Ma, Yunsheng
    Reed, George W.
    UMass Chan Affiliations
    Department of Family Medicine and Community Health
    Department of Medicine, Division of Preventive and Behavioral Medicine
    Document Type
    Journal Article
    Publication Date
    2003-09-01
    Keywords
    Adaptation, Psychological
    Adolescent
    Adult
    Aged
    Aged, 80 and over
    *Altruism
    Christianity
    Female
    Health Status
    Humans
    Male
    *Mental Health
    Middle Aged
    Personal Satisfaction
    Questionnaires
    Regression Analysis
    Sampling Studies
    Social Support
    Socioeconomic Factors
    United States
    Behavioral Disciplines and Activities
    Behavior and Behavior Mechanisms
    Community Health and Preventive Medicine
    Preventive Medicine
    Show allShow less
    
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Link to Full Text
    http://www.psychosomaticmedicine.org/content/65/5/778.long
    Abstract
    OBJECTIVE: This study investigated whether altruistic social interest behaviors such as engaging in helping others were associated with better physical and mental health in a stratified random sample of 2016 members of the Presbyterian Church throughout the United States. METHODS: Mailed questionnaires evaluated giving and receiving help, prayer activities, positive and negative religious coping, and self-reported physical and mental health. RESULTS: Multivariate regression analysis revealed no association between giving or receiving help and physical functioning, although the sample was highly skewed toward high physical functioning. Both helping others and receiving help were significant predictors of mental health, after adjusting for age, gender, stressful life events, income, general health, positive and negative religious coping, and asking God for healing (R2 =.27). Giving help was a more important predictor of better reported mental health than receiving help, and feeling overwhelmed by others' demands was an independent predictor of worse mental health in the adjusted model. Significant predictors of giving help included endorsing more prayer activities, higher satisfaction with prayer life, engaging in positive religious coping, age, female gender, and being a church elder. Frequency of prayer and negative religious coping were not related to giving help. CONCLUSIONS: Helping others is associated with higher levels of mental health, above and beyond the benefits of receiving help and other known psychospiritual, stress, and demographic factors. The links between these findings and response shift theory are discussed, and implications for clinical interventions and future research are described.
    Source
    Psychosom Med. 2003 Sep-Oct;65(5):778-85.
    Permanent Link to this Item
    http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/44946
    PubMed ID
    14508020
    Related Resources
    Link to article in PubMed
    Collections
    Population and Quantitative Health Sciences Publications

    entitlement

    DSpace software (copyright © 2002 - 2023)  DuraSpace
    Lamar Soutter Library, UMass Chan Medical School | 55 Lake Avenue North | Worcester, MA 01655 USA
    Quick Guide | escholarship@umassmed.edu
    Works found in eScholarship@UMassChan are protected by copyright unless otherwise indicated.
    Open Repository is a service operated by 
    Atmire NV
     

    Export search results

    The export option will allow you to export the current search results of the entered query to a file. Different formats are available for download. To export the items, click on the button corresponding with the preferred download format.

    By default, clicking on the export buttons will result in a download of the allowed maximum amount of items.

    To select a subset of the search results, click "Selective Export" button and make a selection of the items you want to export. The amount of items that can be exported at once is similarly restricted as the full export.

    After making a selection, click one of the export format buttons. The amount of items that will be exported is indicated in the bubble next to export format.