Date of Conferral

2022

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Health Education and Promotion

Advisor

Kimberly Rynearson

Abstract

AbstractReligious engagement is essential in terms of offering protective factors for mental and physical health. However, religious engagement has changed, and religious affiliation has decreased over the last decade. This change in religious practice is represented by a decline in religious engagement via disaffiliation of traditional brick and mortar forms of religious activity, with an emerging phenomenon of religious engagement on the Internet. This engagement leads to a gap within the literature regarding Internet-centric religious behaviors. The study aimed to fill this gap by increasing societal understanding of religious engagement behaviors on the Internet. Social support was used to explain Internet livestream religious engagement as a predictive variable with direct and indirect effects on subjective mental and physical health. A quantitative design survey methodology was used with Pearson’s correlation to statistically analyze data to resolve the identified research question exploring the relationship between Internet livestream religious engagement and social support and health-related quality of life. Respondents were recruited and screened to participate in an online survey. The study found a significant relationship between Internet religious engagement with online social support and no significant relationship with health-related quality of life. This study has implications for positive social impact in terms of understanding the probability of internet religious engagement providing online social support with indirect effects on the self-appraisal of mental and physical health. Internet livestream religious engagement as a possible alternative to traditional means of religious practice for social support and health-related quality of life.

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