Lars Johan Danbolt
Biographic Data
| ID | 5747781 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Lars Johan Danbolt |
| GIVEN NAMES | Lars Johan |
| FAMILY NAME | Danbolt |
| SIGNATURE | DANBOLT L J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Innlandet Hospital Trust |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8839-2886 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 27 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 10 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 27 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1997 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Becoming Clergy
The article contributes to the growing research interest in professional agency and identity by examining how novice clergy experience their first years as parish pastors in the Church of Norway. Based on focus groups with newly graduated ministers, analysed with practice-theoretical and socio-cultural perspectives, we identify two modes. The first emerges when pastors enter traditional, well-established practices that lend them authority, clarit…
Existential care in a pluralistic healthcare context
This article examines how hospital chaplains in Norwegian specialist healthcare support patients at risk of suicide, with particular attention to existential care within a pluralistic society. Based on qualitative data from four focus group interviews involving 16 chaplains across somatic and psychiatric units, the study explores how chaplains understand, experience, and reflect on their role in existential conversations. Three main themes emerge…
Meaning in life and identity in patients with severe dementia in Norway
Care for persons with severe dementia in highly specialised healthcare in Norway is guided by person-centred care. However, little research has explored healthcare professionals’ perspectives on meaning in life in this patient group. This qualitative study investigated how healthcare professionals recognise experiences of meaning in life among patients with severe dementia. The research question was: How do healthcare professionals, working in a …
Meaning in life for residents with dementia living in long-term nursing homes
Meaning in life is a key aspect of our well-being and is a central issue within the field of existential health. Knowledge is scarce on the experience of meaning in life of people living with dementia. Dementia is defined as loss of memory and other cognitive abilities, reducing the person’s ability to perform activities of daily living. This poses challenges to interviewing and including persons with dementia in qualitative research. In this stu…
Seeking, Place, and Recognition in the Gospel of John
This article investigates three structurally parallel dialogues in the Gospel of John (1:37–39; 18:3–9; 20:14–17), each initiated by a form of the verb zētein (“to seek”), culminating in distinct acts of recognition, and occurring at the beginning of new narrative sections – namely, Jesus’ ministry, legal proceedings, and post-resurrection stories. While the motifs of seeking and recognition are well established in Johannine scholarship, this stu…
Porous Pastoral Care
Although local parishes are prominent arenas for pastoral care conversations (PCC) in Scandinavia, little empirical research has been conducted on this practice. The present study qualitatively investigates priests’ and deacons’ experiences of their PCC in local parishes within the Church of Norway. We conducted and thematically analyzed five focus-group interviews (total N = 58). The results indicate that PCC are regarded as an important part of…
Mental health of Scandinavians during the first lockdown in the Covid‐19 pandemic
BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic was a global health and economic crisis. In the early phase of the pandemic, studies found that populations were reporting lower levels of mental well-being and high levels of distress and worry. This study investigated potential protective and risk factors such as sociodemographics and psychological factors such as adaptation/coping. METHODS: Two convenience samples from Norway and Denmark were recruited during …
The Meaning and Purpose Scales (Maps)
As this series of studies demonstrates, the MAPS provide a highly economic and valid assessment of two qualities of meaning, Meaningfulness and Crisis of Meaning, and five sources of purpose: Sustainability, Faith, Security, Community, and Personal Growth
Meaning in life in adolescents with developmental trauma
Aim:The purpose of this study was to explore how adolescent patients displaying developmental trauma experience and describe meaning in life. Schnell’s model of meaning in life is applied to explore meaningfulness, crises of meaning and sources of meaning. Method: The study has a qualitative design based on individual interviews with eight adolescents aged 14–18 years in treatment in an outpatient clinic for mental health care for children and ad…
Experiences of meaning in life in urban and rural Zambia
Meaning in life has become an important topic in empirical research in the psychology of religion. Although it has been studied and found applicable in many different contexts, research on meaning in life and sources of meaning in African countries is scarce. This study qualitatively investigates understandings and experiences of meaning in life and sources of meaning among urban and village dwellers with different educational backgrounds in Zamb…
Therapists and the Topic of Meaning in Life in Their Encounters With Adolescents With Developmental Trauma
Therapists at a mental health outpatient clinic for children and adolescents found the topic of meaning important but challenging to involve in the treatment of adolescents with developmental trauma. There is a need for more research to enhance understanding of what it means to include meaning as a topic in child and adolescent psychiatry, and what may be the specific benefit and challenges involved
Patients at risk of suicide and their meaning in life experiences
Patients in specialist mental healthcare services who are at risk of suicide may experience their struggles as existential in nature. Yet, research on meaning in life has been relatively scarce in suicidology. This qualitative study aimed to explore how patients at risk of suicide perceived their encounters with specialist healthcare professionals after a suicide attempt (SA), with special reference to meaning in life experiences. The study was c…
“If you and I and our Lord . . .”
Religious coping and spiritual struggles were qualitatively analyzed in 15 semi-structured interviews with Norwegian Hodgkin’s disease survivors. We asked, How is religious coping expressed in 15 Norwegian Hodgkin’s disease survivors? The analyses were theory-driven, using religious coping and spiritual struggles theories as explorative tools. Especially we focused on coping processes, coping dynamics, coping styles, and coping activities. The an…
The Challenge of Being Present and Inclusive
Introduction: Experiencing deafblindness is frequently accompanied by existential struggles. The number of older people with acquired deafblindness is fast increasing, and older persons' health-related burdens are particularly associated with existential challenges. Hence, older persons with acquired deafblindness are explicitly exposed to existential struggles. Chaplains have a vital role in providing existential care. They do this both in congr…
The significance ascribed to contacting a diaconal suicide-prevention crisis line in Norway
Suicide-prevention crisis lines worldwide offer support to individuals in crisis, nonetheless, there is limited in-depth knowledge as to the significance of contacting these services from the service-users’ first-hand perspectives. This study aimed to provide a deeper understanding of the significance ascribed to contacting a diaconal suicide-prevention crisis line in Norway. In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with nine callers. The m…
End Time and Emotions
The aim of this qualitative interview study was to explore the specific expectations that N = 29 Jehovah’s Witnesses (JWs) had of end times and paradise using an emotion regulation perspective. Beyond the general eschatological doctrine of JWs, the participants were encouraged to report their individual beliefs and connected emotions. Thematic analysis identified forecasting of life in paradise in the form of a continuation of physical life but w…
Existential themes in the treatment of people at suicide risk. Understandings and practices of specialist healthcare professionals
This qualitative study focuses on the ways in which existential themes were understood and addressed in therapeutic relationships with patients who had attempted suicide. Health care professionals (HCP) from Norway specialist healthcare participated in focus groups. The interviews were transcribed and analysed by systematic text-condensation through a four-step procedure. We found that the HCPs emphasised the context-specific functions of their d…
The Sources of Meaning and Meaning in Life Questionnaire in the Norwegian Context
The Sources of Meaning and Meaning in Life Questionnaire (SoMe) offers dimensional measures of meaningfulness, crisis of meaning, and 26 sources of meaning. It allows for a clearer understanding of the variety of existential orientations, which are known to be linked to both mental and physical health. The Norwegian version of the SoMe was validated by testing 925 randomly selected individuals who were representative for the Norwegian population.…
Religiousness in First-Episode Psychosis
The aim of the present study is to explore the significance of religiousness for patients suffering from first-episode psychosis. Our study is a thematic analysis. The study illustrates how the patients understood their hallucinations as mystical experiences. Even so, many of the patients describe their religiousness to be helpful in coping with their disorder, giving meaning to life as well as a relationship to a sacred figure. However, their re…
Emotional Forecasting of Happiness
The aim of this study was to explore which group-based emotion regulation goals and strategies are offered in the group culture of Jehovah's Witnesses (JWS). Based on interviews with 29 group-active JWS in Norway, a thematic analysis was conducted in which an overall pattern of cognition taking precedence over emotions was found. Due to endtime expectations and a long-term goal of eternal life in Paradise, future emotions were prioritized. The em…
The illness reframing process in an ethnic-majority population of older people with incurable cancer
Increasing numbers of older people in Western countries are living with incurable cancer as a chronic disease, receiving palliative care from specialised healthcare contexts. The study's aim was to understand variations of cultural- and existential meaning-making adjustments in a Norwegian majority population of older people with incurable cancer. Semi-structured interviews from 21 participants, aged 70–88, were analysed according to three identi…
Meaning-Making, Religiousness and Spirituality in Religiously Founded Substance Misuse Services-A Qualitative Study of Staff and Patients' Experiences
The Norwegian health authorities buy one third of their addiction treatment from private institutions run by organizations and trusts. Several of these are founded on religious values. The aim of the study was to investigate such value-based treatment and the patients' experiences of spirituality and religiousness as factors of meaning-making in rehabilitation. The study was performed in an explorative qualitative design. Data were collected thro…
If I Didn't Have My Faith I Would Have Killed Myself!”
Spirituality, religiousness, and existential thought were qualitatively investigated in six patients suffering from schizophrenia spectrum disorders. The present study is a deepening of a recently published quantitative investigation by Danbolt, Møller, Lien, and Hestad (2011) Danbolt, L., Møller, P., Lien, L. and Hestad, K. 2011. The personal significance of religiousness and spirituality in patients with schizophrenia. The International Journal…
Distribution and understanding of items of religiousness in the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study, Norway
In this study we describe religious activity, view of life and religious coping-related attitudes in Nord-Trøndelag County (Norway), give in-depth perspectives on the interpretation of these variables, and evaluate their applicability. Data were collected from the population-based Nord-Trøndelag Health Study's third wave, HUNT 3 (2006–2008) (N = 50,374), and supplemented by a focus group interview. Demographic variables showed findings correspond…
Is ‘Seeking God's Help’ Associated with Life Satisfaction and Disease-specific Quality of Life in Cancer Patients? The Hunt Study
This study investigates the prevalence of ‘Seeking God's Help’, its relation to time since diagnosis, and its association with Life Satisfaction for all cancer types. This study also investigates Disease-Specific Quality of Life (QoL: European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer modules) for patients with breast, prostate, and colorectal cancers. Data were obtained from the third wave of the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study of Norway (HU…
The Sources of Meaning and Meaning in Life Questionnaire in the Norwegian Context
The Sources of Meaning and Meaning in Life Questionnaire (SoMe) offers dimensional measures of meaningfulness, crisis of meaning, and 26 sources of meaning. It allows for a clearer understanding of the variety of existential orientations, which are known to be linked to both mental and physical health. The Norwegian version of the SoMe was validated by testing 925 randomly selected individuals who were representative for the Norwegian population.…
If I Didn't Have My Faith I Would Have Killed Myself!”
Spirituality, religiousness, and existential thought were qualitatively investigated in six patients suffering from schizophrenia spectrum disorders. The present study is a deepening of a recently published quantitative investigation by Danbolt, Møller, Lien, and Hestad (2011) Danbolt, L., Møller, P., Lien, L. and Hestad, K. 2011. The personal significance of religiousness and spirituality in patients with schizophrenia. The International Journal…
Meaning-Making, Religiousness and Spirituality in Religiously Founded Substance Misuse Services-A Qualitative Study of Staff and Patients' Experiences
The Norwegian health authorities buy one third of their addiction treatment from private institutions run by organizations and trusts. Several of these are founded on religious values. The aim of the study was to investigate such value-based treatment and the patients' experiences of spirituality and religiousness as factors of meaning-making in rehabilitation. The study was performed in an explorative qualitative design. Data were collected thro…
The Personal Significance of Religiousness and Spirituality in Patients With Schizophrenia
Religiousness and spirituality were examined in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Features and subjective significance are described, and associations with psychopathological phenomena are analyzed. The majority of the patients reported that religiousness and spirituality serve a vital positive influence in their ability to cope with their disorder. This positive influence was observed less among those patients with more negative sy…
A Time to Mourn
This article gives brief results of a Norwegian empirical project where the main purpose has been to study the burial rite versus bereavement and the role of religiousness in relation to the disposing of the dead. The theoretical perspective is that loss of a significant close, as well as religiousness are primary life experiences which flow together in the bereaved person's grieving conduct during the burial rite. 70 bereaved persons who had los…
The Personal Significance of Religiousness and Spirituality in Patients With Schizophrenia
Religiousness and spirituality were examined in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Features and subjective significance are described, and associations with psychopathological phenomena are analyzed. The majority of the patients reported that religiousness and spirituality serve a vital positive influence in their ability to cope with their disorder. This positive influence was observed less among those patients with more negative sy…
Distribution and understanding of items of religiousness in the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study, Norway
In this study we describe religious activity, view of life and religious coping-related attitudes in Nord-Trøndelag County (Norway), give in-depth perspectives on the interpretation of these variables, and evaluate their applicability. Data were collected from the population-based Nord-Trøndelag Health Study's third wave, HUNT 3 (2006–2008) (N = 50,374), and supplemented by a focus group interview. Demographic variables showed findings correspond…
Is ‘Seeking God's Help’ Associated with Life Satisfaction and Disease-specific Quality of Life in Cancer Patients? The Hunt Study
This study investigates the prevalence of ‘Seeking God's Help’, its relation to time since diagnosis, and its association with Life Satisfaction for all cancer types. This study also investigates Disease-Specific Quality of Life (QoL: European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer modules) for patients with breast, prostate, and colorectal cancers. Data were obtained from the third wave of the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study of Norway (HU…
If I Didn't Have My Faith I Would Have Killed Myself!”
Spirituality, religiousness, and existential thought were qualitatively investigated in six patients suffering from schizophrenia spectrum disorders. The present study is a deepening of a recently published quantitative investigation by Danbolt, Møller, Lien, and Hestad (2011) Danbolt, L., Møller, P., Lien, L. and Hestad, K. 2011. The personal significance of religiousness and spirituality in patients with schizophrenia. The International Journal…
Meaning-Making, Religiousness and Spirituality in Religiously Founded Substance Misuse Services-A Qualitative Study of Staff and Patients' Experiences
The Norwegian health authorities buy one third of their addiction treatment from private institutions run by organizations and trusts. Several of these are founded on religious values. The aim of the study was to investigate such value-based treatment and the patients' experiences of spirituality and religiousness as factors of meaning-making in rehabilitation. The study was performed in an explorative qualitative design. Data were collected thro…
The illness reframing process in an ethnic-majority population of older people with incurable cancer
Increasing numbers of older people in Western countries are living with incurable cancer as a chronic disease, receiving palliative care from specialised healthcare contexts. The study's aim was to understand variations of cultural- and existential meaning-making adjustments in a Norwegian majority population of older people with incurable cancer. Semi-structured interviews from 21 participants, aged 70–88, were analysed according to three identi…
Religiousness in First-Episode Psychosis
The aim of the present study is to explore the significance of religiousness for patients suffering from first-episode psychosis. Our study is a thematic analysis. The study illustrates how the patients understood their hallucinations as mystical experiences. Even so, many of the patients describe their religiousness to be helpful in coping with their disorder, giving meaning to life as well as a relationship to a sacred figure. However, their re…
Emotional Forecasting of Happiness
The aim of this study was to explore which group-based emotion regulation goals and strategies are offered in the group culture of Jehovah's Witnesses (JWS). Based on interviews with 29 group-active JWS in Norway, a thematic analysis was conducted in which an overall pattern of cognition taking precedence over emotions was found. Due to endtime expectations and a long-term goal of eternal life in Paradise, future emotions were prioritized. The em…
Existential themes in the treatment of people at suicide risk. Understandings and practices of specialist healthcare professionals
This qualitative study focuses on the ways in which existential themes were understood and addressed in therapeutic relationships with patients who had attempted suicide. Health care professionals (HCP) from Norway specialist healthcare participated in focus groups. The interviews were transcribed and analysed by systematic text-condensation through a four-step procedure. We found that the HCPs emphasised the context-specific functions of their d…
The Sources of Meaning and Meaning in Life Questionnaire in the Norwegian Context
The Sources of Meaning and Meaning in Life Questionnaire (SoMe) offers dimensional measures of meaningfulness, crisis of meaning, and 26 sources of meaning. It allows for a clearer understanding of the variety of existential orientations, which are known to be linked to both mental and physical health. The Norwegian version of the SoMe was validated by testing 925 randomly selected individuals who were representative for the Norwegian population.…
End Time and Emotions
The aim of this qualitative interview study was to explore the specific expectations that N = 29 Jehovah’s Witnesses (JWs) had of end times and paradise using an emotion regulation perspective. Beyond the general eschatological doctrine of JWs, the participants were encouraged to report their individual beliefs and connected emotions. Thematic analysis identified forecasting of life in paradise in the form of a continuation of physical life but w…
The Challenge of Being Present and Inclusive
Introduction: Experiencing deafblindness is frequently accompanied by existential struggles. The number of older people with acquired deafblindness is fast increasing, and older persons' health-related burdens are particularly associated with existential challenges. Hence, older persons with acquired deafblindness are explicitly exposed to existential struggles. Chaplains have a vital role in providing existential care. They do this both in congr…
The significance ascribed to contacting a diaconal suicide-prevention crisis line in Norway
Suicide-prevention crisis lines worldwide offer support to individuals in crisis, nonetheless, there is limited in-depth knowledge as to the significance of contacting these services from the service-users’ first-hand perspectives. This study aimed to provide a deeper understanding of the significance ascribed to contacting a diaconal suicide-prevention crisis line in Norway. In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with nine callers. The m…
“If you and I and our Lord . . .”
Religious coping and spiritual struggles were qualitatively analyzed in 15 semi-structured interviews with Norwegian Hodgkin’s disease survivors. We asked, How is religious coping expressed in 15 Norwegian Hodgkin’s disease survivors? The analyses were theory-driven, using religious coping and spiritual struggles theories as explorative tools. Especially we focused on coping processes, coping dynamics, coping styles, and coping activities. The an…
Therapists and the Topic of Meaning in Life in Their Encounters With Adolescents With Developmental Trauma
Therapists at a mental health outpatient clinic for children and adolescents found the topic of meaning important but challenging to involve in the treatment of adolescents with developmental trauma. There is a need for more research to enhance understanding of what it means to include meaning as a topic in child and adolescent psychiatry, and what may be the specific benefit and challenges involved
Patients at risk of suicide and their meaning in life experiences
Patients in specialist mental healthcare services who are at risk of suicide may experience their struggles as existential in nature. Yet, research on meaning in life has been relatively scarce in suicidology. This qualitative study aimed to explore how patients at risk of suicide perceived their encounters with specialist healthcare professionals after a suicide attempt (SA), with special reference to meaning in life experiences. The study was c…
Porous Pastoral Care
Although local parishes are prominent arenas for pastoral care conversations (PCC) in Scandinavia, little empirical research has been conducted on this practice. The present study qualitatively investigates priests’ and deacons’ experiences of their PCC in local parishes within the Church of Norway. We conducted and thematically analyzed five focus-group interviews (total N = 58). The results indicate that PCC are regarded as an important part of…
Mental health of Scandinavians during the first lockdown in the Covid‐19 pandemic
BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic was a global health and economic crisis. In the early phase of the pandemic, studies found that populations were reporting lower levels of mental well-being and high levels of distress and worry. This study investigated potential protective and risk factors such as sociodemographics and psychological factors such as adaptation/coping. METHODS: Two convenience samples from Norway and Denmark were recruited during …
The Meaning and Purpose Scales (Maps)
As this series of studies demonstrates, the MAPS provide a highly economic and valid assessment of two qualities of meaning, Meaningfulness and Crisis of Meaning, and five sources of purpose: Sustainability, Faith, Security, Community, and Personal Growth
Meaning in life in adolescents with developmental trauma
Aim:The purpose of this study was to explore how adolescent patients displaying developmental trauma experience and describe meaning in life. Schnell’s model of meaning in life is applied to explore meaningfulness, crises of meaning and sources of meaning. Method: The study has a qualitative design based on individual interviews with eight adolescents aged 14–18 years in treatment in an outpatient clinic for mental health care for children and ad…
Experiences of meaning in life in urban and rural Zambia
Meaning in life has become an important topic in empirical research in the psychology of religion. Although it has been studied and found applicable in many different contexts, research on meaning in life and sources of meaning in African countries is scarce. This study qualitatively investigates understandings and experiences of meaning in life and sources of meaning among urban and village dwellers with different educational backgrounds in Zamb…
Existential care in a pluralistic healthcare context
This article examines how hospital chaplains in Norwegian specialist healthcare support patients at risk of suicide, with particular attention to existential care within a pluralistic society. Based on qualitative data from four focus group interviews involving 16 chaplains across somatic and psychiatric units, the study explores how chaplains understand, experience, and reflect on their role in existential conversations. Three main themes emerge…
Meaning in life and identity in patients with severe dementia in Norway
Care for persons with severe dementia in highly specialised healthcare in Norway is guided by person-centred care. However, little research has explored healthcare professionals’ perspectives on meaning in life in this patient group. This qualitative study investigated how healthcare professionals recognise experiences of meaning in life among patients with severe dementia. The research question was: How do healthcare professionals, working in a …
Meaning in life for residents with dementia living in long-term nursing homes
Meaning in life is a key aspect of our well-being and is a central issue within the field of existential health. Knowledge is scarce on the experience of meaning in life of people living with dementia. Dementia is defined as loss of memory and other cognitive abilities, reducing the person’s ability to perform activities of daily living. This poses challenges to interviewing and including persons with dementia in qualitative research. In this stu…
Psychology (23 works) · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology (17 works) · Social Psychology (15 works) · Psychotherapist (14 works) · Sociology (14 works) · Medicine (12 works) · Qualitative research (12 works) · Clinical Psychology (9 works) · Meaning (existential (9 works) · Social Psychology (8 works)