Religion’s mental health benefits are largely tied to existential meaning and digital habits

People who are more religious tend to report better mental health and lower rates of substance use, but new research suggests this might be largely due to how they find meaning in life and how much time they spend on social media. The findings indicate that when existential meaning and digital habits are taken into account, the direct protective effects of religion remain for substance use but disappear for general mental health symptoms. The research was published in the International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction.

Religious involvement has often been associated with favorable mental health outcomes. For instance, a 2021 review noted that religious beliefs and practices frequently correspond to lower rates of depression, anxiety, and substance abuse. However, the exact reasons behind this connection are not always apparent. Religion often involves a complex mix of shared beliefs, community norms, and daily practices that shape how people live and cope with stress.

One common psychological pathway is the sense of meaning in life, defined as the feeling that one’s existence is important and purposeful. A feeling of purpose tends to buffer against anxiety and promotes general well-being. Additionally, religious communities often promote norms that restrict certain behaviors, such as how much time people spend online. A wide body of evidence, including a 2020 meta-analysis, provides evidence that problematic social media habits are consistently linked to higher psychological distress and poorer overall well-being.

By restricting idle time or discouraging the use of certain technologies, religion might naturally limit a person’s exposure to potentially harmful online content. This is particularly relevant during times of conflict, when social media often circulates graphic imagery or hate speech. Substance use, behavioral addictions, and general mental health symptoms frequently co-occur in the same individuals. Mental health experts suggest that a substantial portion of these overlaps comes from a shared underlying vulnerability rather than entirely separate conditions.

“Given the unique salience of religious identity in Israeli society, and the fact that meaning in life and social media use are both major, modifiable factors that hadn’t really been examined together in this context, it felt like a natural and timely gap to address,” said Aaron D. Cherniak, a postdoctoral researcher at the Israel Center for Addiction and Mental Health at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “Especially during a period, the ongoing war, when digital exposure to distressing content was unusually high and psychologically consequential.”

The research involved a sample of 2,907 Jewish adults in Israel. The participants completed an online survey in February 2025. This population provided an ideal setting to study religious identity, as Israeli Jews generally categorize themselves into four distinct groups: secular, traditional, religious, and ultra-Orthodox. These categories correspond to observable differences in lifestyle, daily behavioral norms, and social environments. For the analysis, the researchers grouped the secular and traditional participants into one category and the religious and ultra-Orthodox participants into another.

The survey measured each person’s sense of meaning in life, daily time spent on social media, and exposure to harmful online content, such as hate speech and uncensored war media. It also assessed participants for problematic substance use, including non-medical use of tobacco, alcohol, cannabis, and prescription medications. The researchers screened for behavioral addictions by asking participants about problematic gambling, gaming, compulsive sexual behavior, and pornography use. Finally, the survey measured symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, general anxiety, and depression.

Rather than looking at each problem individually, the researchers used statistical techniques to group the shared vulnerabilities across the three main categories: substance use, behavioral addictions, and mental health symptoms. To ensure the results reflected the variables in question rather than outside factors, the research team controlled for age, gender, educational attainment, economic level, marital status, and direct exposure to the ongoing war in Israel, which included how often participants experienced sirens, heard explosions, or felt their lives were in danger.

Initially, the data showed a broad protective effect of religion. Compared to the secular and traditional group, the religious and ultra-Orthodox participants reported lower levels of problematic substance use, fewer behavioral addictions, and fewer mental health symptoms. They also reported a higher sense of meaning in life, spent less time on social media, and had less exposure to harmful online content.

Across the entire sample, having a higher sense of meaning in life was linked to lower vulnerability scores in all three outcome categories: substance use, behavioral addictions, and mental health issues. In contrast, higher social media use and more frequent exposure to harmful online content were associated with worse outcomes in all three areas.

When the researchers adjusted their statistical models to account for meaning in life and digital habits, the relationship between religion and mental health shifted. The protective association between religion and general mental health symptoms disappeared completely.

“Religiosity can have an effect on mental health when it provides meaning in life and its values scaffold healthier digital habits,” Cherniak told PsyPost.

In the case of behavioral addictions, the relationship reversed. The data indicated that religious participants were more likely to report behavioral addictions than secular or traditional participants once meaning in life and internet habits were factored in. The researchers proposed that because behavioral addictions are often private, they might be less visible to a religious community and subject to fewer social sanctions than substance use. Certain religious prohibitions might also redirect coping strategies toward more private reward-seeking activities.

However, the protective effect of religion on problematic substance use remained intact even after accounting for existential meaning and social media use. The researchers noted that religious community norms and social structures might exert an independent protective influence against substance abuse that goes beyond basic psychological and digital pathways.

Because the data were collected during an ongoing war, this period of heightened collective trauma might amplify the effects of both digital exposure and psychological distress, meaning the patterns could look different during a time of peace.

“This is a cross-sectional study, so we can’t say religiosity or meaning in life causes better mental health, only that they’re associated,” Cherniak said.

However, he cautioned against misinterpreting the lack of a direct mental health effect in the adjusted models. “I’d also caution against reading this as ‘religion doesn’t matter’ — it clearly correlates with real protective factors. The nuance is that religiosity’s benefits seem to run through specific, identifiable pathways.”

The measurement of social media activity also focused primarily on the frequency of use. Future research tracking individuals over longer periods and accounting for how people actively or passively interact with specific online platforms would help clarify how these various factors influence one another over time.

“We are moving forward with longitudinal data to test directionality and use more multidimensional measures of religiosity—belief, practice, community involvement—rather than a single affiliation category,” Cherniak said. “I’m also interested in digging into the behavioral addiction finding specifically, since it raises real questions about how vulnerability shows up differently across visible and private behaviors.”

The study, “Association of Religiosity, Meaning in Life, and Social Media use with Common Mental Health Disorders,” was authored by Aaron D. Cherniak, Dvora Shmulewitz, Maor Daniel Levitin, Vera Skvirsky, Ariel Kor, Shaul Lev-Ran, and Mario Mikulincer.