Survivors of childhood abuse often remain traumatized into adulthood, but those whose abuse was justified by religious teachings exhibit even higher levels of psychological distress. Recent research has found that these people report higher rates of anxiety, depression, stress, and anger in adulthood compared to those who have experienced secular forms of abuse. These findings were published in the journal Psychology of Religion and Spirituality.
Faith and spirituality are generally considered protective factors in psychology. Religious communities regularly provide social support and a sense of common purpose, helping individuals recover from traumatic events. High religious involvement is consistently associated with lower rates of depression and fewer physical health problems.
But researchers and advocates say perpetrators sometimes weaponize faith to excuse their actions. This particular form of abuse relies on religious texts, authority figures, or sacred contexts to validate harmful actions. Psychologists call this move religiously justified abuse.
Examples of this behavior include parents who cite specific Bible verses to defend the use of severe corporal punishment against their children. It also includes spiritual leaders who use their positions of trust to commit sexual abuse and then claim divine authority and demand silence from their victims. Historically, it involves the forced assimilation and abuse of Native American children in church-run boarding schools.
Public awareness of abuse in sacred settings has increased in recent years. Movements powered by technology and social media have exposed abuse cover-ups across multiple major religious denominations. Despite this increased awareness, standardized psychological assessments rarely ask patients about the underlying religious background of past trauma.
Hannah Docter, a psychology researcher at the University of North Dakota, led a team that investigated how this particular type of abuse is related to adult mental health. The research team included Rayanne Anderson of the University of Missouri-Kansas City, John Paul Legarski and Alan R. King of the University of North Dakota. They wanted to understand whether relying on religious justification changes survivors’ psychological trajectories.
The researchers suspected that religiously justified abuse might create unique psychological barriers to coping. When faith is caught up in early trauma, it can mutate from a source of comfort to a tool of guilt and confusion. The researchers designed a study to test whether the emotional impact of abuse differs when religion is involved.
To explore this idea, researchers recruited 839 adults living in the United States. They used an online crowdsourcing platform to collect survey responses and offered participants a small monetary compensation for their time. Participants ranged in age, gender, and religious background, with approximately a quarter of respondents identifying as atheist or agnostic.
The study asked participants to report on their history of childhood physical and sexual abuse using a standard psychological questionnaire. The researchers then added specialized questions to find out whether there was a religious component to the reported abuse. These factors include actions by religious leaders, actions that take place in a religious setting, or perpetrators who explicitly use religious teachings to justify harm.
Based on the survey responses, the researchers divided the participants into three different categories. The first group had no history of childhood abuse. The second group reported being abused in childhood for no religious reason. A third group reported experiencing childhood abuse that was excused or facilitated by religious beliefs.
Participants also completed a series of established psychological tests to measure their current mental health status as adults. These tests assessed current levels of depression, anxiety, and general stress. Another questionnaire measured traits of aggressive tendencies, hostility, and anger.
Respondents who endured religiously justified abuse showed the highest levels of adult distress overall. Their anxiety, depression, stress, and anger scores were significantly higher than those of people who experienced similar abuse in purely secular settings. Both maltreatment groups had worse mental health outcomes than the group without a history of maltreatment.
When looking at anxiety symptoms, the gap between the two abuse categories was particularly large. Participants were about four times more likely to suffer from extreme anxiety as adults if their early physical or sexual abuse featured a religious justification. The researchers noted that this represents a significantly increased psychological risk compared to standard abuse.
The research team suggested several reasons why religious justifications may amplify the harms of abuse. When perpetrators quote scripture or claim to speak for God, they can instill deep shame and alienation in their victims. Victims can feel that their divine powers have been undermined, and it can be very difficult to recognize the abuse and seek outside help.
Additionally, abuse in a religious context can deprive survivors of a primary emotional support system. Those who have been victimized in a secular setting may be able to turn to their local congregation for comfort and healing. On the other hand, victims of youth pastors are far less likely to find peace within a religious setting.
The study also investigated how these outcomes differ between men and women. In the general population, mental health researchers often find gender-specific patterns in psychological symptoms. Women are more likely to report internalizing symptoms, such as depression and anxiety. Men are often more likely to externalize symptoms of distress, such as anger or physical aggression.
The findings collected were largely consistent with this typical gender pattern for groups with no history of abuse or secular abuse. However, men who survived religiously justified abuse reported an unexpected spike in internalizing symptoms. Their levels of depression, anxiety and stress far exceeded standard expectations, prompting the researchers to caution future research.
The researchers noted some limitations in the study design. This data relies on people recalling and reporting distant childhood events, and misremembering can occur. The sample was collected entirely from online platforms, so it may not be perfectly representative of the country’s broad demographics.
Because the study was openly advertised as a study on religion and child abuse, it may have attracted people who were more willing to share their negative religious experiences. This self-selection may have increased the rate of reported maltreatment within our sample. The authors noted that the prevalence of abuse in this particular study was higher than rates typically seen on national averages.
It is also important to remember that this type of observational study cannot prove direct cause and effect. Although religiously justified abuse is strongly associated with poorer mental health in adulthood, the study design does not allow us to rule out other underlying factors that may contribute to different levels of distress. Future studies that follow young survivors over many decades will be needed to fully understand how these symptoms develop over the lifespan.
Despite these limitations, research indicates that mental health professionals need to pay closer attention to the psychological context of early trauma. Past research has shown that the majority of practicing therapists rarely ask questions about religious conflict during clinical sessions. Recognizing religiously justified abuse as a separate category of harm may help clinicians provide more appropriate and targeted support to survivors.
The study, “Religiously Justified Childhood Abuse and Adult Psychological Maladjustment,” was authored by Hannah Docter, Rayanne Anderson, John Paul Legursky, and Alan R. King.
