Assessing the Relationship between Religiosity and Mental Health in Puerto Rico: A Systematic Review

Resumen

The association between religiosity and mental health has been well empirically documented. Religion is a social institution very important for Puerto Rican population. There have been of increasing in the research about religion and health in the Puerto Rican context. However, the publications of this topic has not been systematically documented. Therefore, the aim of this study was conduct a review about the publications and doctoral dissertations that discuss the relationship between religiosity and mental health in Puerto Rican context. We conducted a search in data bases such as NIH, PubMed, Proquest, EBSCO and GALE and in the website of Puerto Rican journals to document the articles. Furthermore, we realized a search in the library of the universities to document the doctoral dissertations. Our review revealed a total of nine peer-review articles and eight doctoral dissertations. The findings of this review suggest that, for most Puerto Rican, religion play a fundamental role in their lives, so the documented research in this review expose the benefits and costs of the religiosity. We discuss the implications of this research with the purpose to foment the study of religious impact on mental health that could give place to the innovation of intervention models focused in people with spiritual needs. This study was published in the Journal “Ciencias de la Conducta”.