Trajectories of spiritual well-being across the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Abstract

Although adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on multiple dimensions of well-being are amply documented, these studies have overlooked the spiritual dimension of well-being. Thus, we know very little about resilience or decline in spiritual well-being or specific contextual factors and coping efforts that might predict distinct trajectories of spiritual well-being. The study characterized trajectories of U.S. adults' spiritual well-being (faith, meaning, and peace) across the first year of the pandemic and identified psychosocial factors and coping strategies in a national sample of 733 U.S. adults. Two contextual factors (perceived social support and COVID-19 stressors) and six coping strategies were tested as predictors of spiritual well-being trajectory classes. Latent growth mixture modeling analyses were performed to identify trajectory classes of spiritual well-being. Latent growth mixture modeling revealed two classes for faith, high (35.3%) and low (64.7%); three classes for meaning: high (64.5%), moderate (20.6%), and low (14.9%); and two classes for peace: high (63.6%) and low (36.4%). Overall, compared with those in high classes of each facet of spiritual well-being, participants in other classes were more likely to use substances to cope and less likely to positively reappraise, use religious coping, or perceive support from others. Although the majority demonstrated moderate to high levels of spiritual well-being, a substantial minority were quite low. Our findings regarding contextual factors and coping strategies that informed the course of spiritual well-being during the first year of the pandemic suggest that improving access to these resources and support may promote higher levels of spiritual well-being. Based on our results, we provide recommendations for clinical, community, and policy interventions to reduce disparities in spiritual well-being. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).