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Symposia

Spirituality and Religion

Considerations for the Psychospiritual Health of Christians and Muslims Living in the United States

1 - (SYM 47) Antecedents, Microprocesses, and Psychospiritual Outcomes of Divine Forgiveness: Replication and Expansion of Ecological Momentary Assessment Findings with Highly Religious Christians

Saturday, November 22, 2025
12:03 PM - 12:22 PM CST
Location: Celestin A, Level 3
Keywords: Spirituality and Religion, Culture,
Recommended Readings: Chaudoir, S. R., Dugan, A. G., & Barr, C. H. (2013). Measuring factors affecting implementation of health innovations: A systematic review of structural, organizational, provider, patient, and innovation level measures. Implementation Science, 8(1), Article 1. https://doi.org/10.1186/1748-5908-8-22,   Fincham, F. D. (2024). The conditionality of divine forgiveness: Assessment and initial findings. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality. https://doi.org/10.1037/rel0000541,   Lateef, H., & Umarji, O. (2022). Black American Muslims: A study of religious identity and mental health. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 25(8), 802–816. https://doi.org/10.1080/13674676.2022.2116632,   Zainiddinov, H. (2016). Racial and ethnic differences in perceptions of discrimination among Muslim Americans. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 39(15), 2701–2721. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2016.1164877,  
Abstract Body

Introduction: Research on divine forgiveness (DF; perceived absolution that God offers for a moral transgression and that manifests in the transgressor’s thoughts, emotions, and/or behaviors) with monotheistic believers suggest that assurance of forgiveness from God is associated with greater well-being and less depression/anxiety symptoms (Fincham, 2023). Notwithstanding voluminous theological scholarship on DF, little is known about peoples’ everyday moral transgressions and DF features of their responses to those events. Focusing on a demographically and denominationally diverse sample of 104 Christians, findings from a recent EMA study revealed they generally had worse psychospiritual states at the next momentary assessment after reporting a transgression over the 21-day assessment period. In such cases, seeking and experiencing forgiveness from God was prospectively linked with increased state DF, self-compassion, and connectedness with God but not reduced distress (Currier et al., 2024). In addition, state DF was facilitative of positive and negative psychospiritual states from day-to-day rather than vice versa. In combination, these findings suggest an upward spiral in which moments of transgression-specific DF leads to positive psychospiritual states that might support well-being and resilience more broadly in psychological intervention

Method: EMA was again used to replicate and expand upon these findings. In particular, another sample of over 100 Christian adults completed measures four times daily for 21 days assessing contextual features of their transgression–DF episodes, including: (a) type, nature, and severity of moral transgressions; (b) DF features (DF-seeking, DF-experiencing, self-forgiveness); and (c) psychospiritual states (e.g., self-conscious and transcendent emotions, connectedness with God and other people).

Results: Descriptive and frequency analyses will examine features of moral transgressions. In turn, dynamic structural equation modeling and multilevel modeling with full-information estimation will be used to: (a) explore prospective associations between moral transgressions and features of transgression-DF episodes on psychological and spiritual states; and (b) within-person associations between state DF and other psychospiritual states over the three-week period. Discussion: Findings will further elucidate antecedents, microprocesses, and proximal outcomes of state DF and transgression-specific DF in the context of theistic relational spirituality.