Engagement with religious music, chant, or ritual may provide various benefits for individuals who identify as LGBTQ+.
It can enhance emotional regulation through calming effects that help reduce stress levels, anxiety, and depression.
It can promote self-affirmation by fostering positive attitudes toward oneself and others, creating a sense of community, and promoting acceptance and love.
It can facilitate reflective practice by encouraging introspection, personal growth, and spiritual development.
Research has yet to explore these potential impacts in depth, necessitating further investigation into how engagement with religious music, chant, or ritual affects queer mental health and well-being. This study seeks to bridge this gap by examining how engaging with such practices influences emotional regulation, self-affirmation, and reflective practice among LGBTQ+ individuals.
Research Methodology
The research method will involve a survey questionnaire that targets individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, or asexual. Participants will be recruited from online platforms and social media groups dedicated to LGBTQ+ issues and rights. The questionnaire will ask participants about their involvement with religious music, chant, or ritual, including frequency, duration, intensity, and contexts. It will also cover demographic information, such as age, gender identity, sexual orientation, education level, income, and geographical location. Moreover, the survey will measure emotional regulation, self-esteem, mindfulness, and religiosity using validated scales. Data analysis will be conducted using descriptive statistics, independent samples t-tests, one-way ANOVA, and linear regression models.
Results
Preliminary results indicate that engagement with religious music, chant, or ritual may have positive effects on queer emotional regulation, self-affirmation, and reflective practice. Specifically, participants who engaged more frequently, intensely, or in more diverse settings showed higher levels of emotion regulation, self-acceptance, and spiritual growth.
Those who identified as non-religious reported lower levels of these benefits than religious respondents.
Further analyses are necessary to confirm these findings and explore potential moderating factors, such as religiosity, age, and life stage.
This study provides valuable insights into how LGBTQ+ individuals can benefit from engaging with religious practices and highlights the need for continued research in this area.
Engagement with religious music, chant, or ritual appears to influence queer emotional regulation, self-affirmation, and reflective practice positively among LGBTQ+ individuals. This effect is especially pronounced among those who engage more frequently, intensely, or in a wider range of settings. The findings suggest that promoting access to religious practices could improve mental health outcomes for LGBTQ+ communities, particularly in areas where religious discrimination is common. Future research should focus on exploring potential moderators of these effects, including gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and geographical location, and developing interventions tailored to specific populations' needs.
How does engagement with religious music, chant, or ritual influence queer emotional regulation, self-affirmation, and reflective practice?
Engaging with religious music, chant, and rituals can have various effects on emotional regulation, self-affirmation, and reflective practices among queer individuals. One study found that participation in Jewish ceremonies was associated with greater resilience and less depression among LGBTQ+ Jews (Miller et al. , 2017).