Exploring the relationships among humility, negative interaction in the church, and depressed affect

The purpose of this study is to test three hypotheses involving humility. The first hypothesis specifies that people who are more deeply involved in religion will be more humble than individuals who are not as involved in religion. The second hypothesis predicts that humility will offset the effects of negative interaction in the church on depressed affect scores. The third hypothesis specifies that there will be a positive relationship between age and humility.

The data come from the Religion, Aging, and Health Survey, a nationwide survey of middle-aged and older Christians who attend church on a regular basis (N = 1154).

The findings suggest that people who are more committed to their faith tend to be more humble. The results also reveal that negative interaction in the church is greater for people with lower humility scores than individuals with higher humility scores. In contrast, the data indicate that older adults are not more humble than middle-aged people.

The findings are noteworthy because they identify a source of resilience that may help middle-aged and older adults cope more effectively with the effects of stress.