Effectiveness of an intellectual humility intervention for interpersonal spiritual struggles: A pragmatic randomized controlled trial.

Interpersonal struggles regarding religious and/or spiritual matters are associated with poorer mental health.To date, specialized interventions for addressing this issue have been lacking in clinical and community settings.We examined the effectiveness of a 4-week, theory-based, online intellectual humility intervention under real-world conditions for adults experiencing distressing interpersonal spiritual struggles.Intellectual humility involves awareness that one's knowledge is imperfect, including that one's thoughts and beliefs could be inaccurate or incomplete.This preregistered, randomized controlled trial assigned 447 adults (M age = 30.0,SD age = 6.8; 63% male; 82.2% Christian) to either the intervention or a waitlist control.Measures were administered at baseline, immediately postintervention, and 1 month later.Generalized linear mixed models with robust covariance estimation and intent-to-treat principle revealed a Time × Condition interaction for most outcomes.The intervention and waitlist control groups did not differ on any variables at baseline.Immediately postintervention, the intervention group was higher than the control group in general and struggle-specific intellectual humility, personal growth, and forgiveness of the struggle partner and lower than the control group in amount and negative life impact of interpersonal spiritual struggle, stress, and psychological distress.These differences were maintained 1 month later for all variables except psychological distress.This research supports the effectiveness of a low-cost, accessible intervention promoting intellectual humility as an avenue toward resolution of interpersonal spiritual struggles and enhanced mental health and well-being for individuals in the community. Public Significance StatementThis study suggests that an asynchronous, online program designed to increase people's awareness that their knowledge is imperfect is helpful for individuals experiencing tension, conflict, or strain with others about religious or spiritual matters.The program decreased interpersonal struggle and stress levels and temporarily decreased psychological distress.The program also increased personal growth and forgiveness of the struggle partner.