ORIGINAL PAPER The Mediational Role of Psychological Basic Needs in the Relation Between Conception of God and Psychological Outcomes Sebastiano Costa • Maria C. Gugliandolo • Nadia Barberis • Rosalba Larcan Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014 Abstract Relatively few studies have examined the relationship between conception of God and psychological outcomes in a self-determination theory (SDT) framework. The aim of this study was to examine the role of basic psychological needs as a mediator of the association between conception of God and psychological outcomes. In a sample of 210 religious young adults, we found that the concept of a controlling God was positively associated with feelings of need frustration and depression, whilst the concept of an autonomy-supporting God was positively associated with feelings of need satisfaction and vitality. In turn, need satisfaction promoted feelings of vitality, whereas need frustration led to feelings of depression. The satisfaction of needs was a full mediator of the relationship between autonomy-supporting God and vitality, whilst the frustration of needs was a full mediator of the relationship between controlling God and depression. These findings are discussed in terms of SDT. We also discuss how future research may further increase our understanding of the dynamics involved in concepts of God and psychological outcomes. Keywords Conception of God Á Self-determination theory Á Basic needs Á Depression Á Vitality Introduction Researchers have shown a long-standing interest in the relationship between religion and mental health. Although some early works in this area were highly critical of the role of Sebastiano Costa assisted with generation of the initial draft of the manuscript, data analyses, and manu- script editing, Maria C. Gugliandolo assisted with manuscript preparation, manuscript editing, study con- cept, Nadia Barberis assisted with data analysis, and manuscript editing, Rosalba Larcan assisted with data interpretation, interpretation of data, and study supervision. S. Costa (&) Á M. C. Gugliandolo Á N. Barberis Á R. Larcan Section of Psychology, Department of Human and Social Sciences, University of Messina, Via Bivona, 98122 Messina, Italy e-mail: scosta@unime.it 123 J Relig Health DOI 10.1007/s10943-014-9956-6