The role of spiritual/religious perfectionism in psychological health and disorder

Spirituality as one of the main dimensions of health has an influential role in spiritual health. Spiritual/religious perfectionism, recently has conceptualized as a type of perfectionism by Besharat (2017, 2018), is one of the determinants of spiritual health. The main purpose of the present study was to investigate the role of spiritual/religious perfectionism in psychological health and disorder. Two hundred and thirty four individuals (126 men, 108 women) living in Tehran participated in this study, voluntarily. All participants were asked to complete Spiritual/Religious Perfectionism Scale (SRPS), Ego Strength Scale (ESS), Mental Health Inventory (MHI-28), and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS). The results revealed a significant positive correlation with measures of ego strength and psychological well-being, as well as a significant negative correlation with psychological distress, and measures of depression and anxiety symptoms. Results of regression analyses revealed that 70% of variance of the research variables explained by spiritual/religious perfectionism with largest portion for the ego strength. It can be concluded that spiritual/religious perfectionism is one of the determinants of psychological health, meanwhile playing a preventive role in psychological disorder.