Modeling Religion and Health

My name is Seungju Kim¹ and thank you for visiting my personal website detailing my research interests and work!

I am a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and second-year PhD student in Clinical/Community Psychology Program at the University of Illinois under Dr. Nathan Todd.

My research is broadly focused advancing the science of LGBTQ+ health disparities by looking ath the socio-ecological effects of religion/spirituality.

Recent News

Sep 26, 2025

What is the state of LGBQ+ support among U.S. Religious Leaders?

Using a nationally representative sample of 1,600 religious leaders, this study reveals overall low LGBQ+ support among U.S. religious leaders. Religious fundamentalism emerged as the strongest predictor of lower support, while factors like higher education and religious/spiritual struggles were associated with greater acceptance. The findings highlight a significant gap between religious leader attitudes and broader population trends toward LGBQ+ acceptance.

Jul 27, 2025

The strongest supporters of Christian nationalism are the most likely to report spiritual grandiosity and inflate their sense of spirituality

In this open access paper, we examine how patterns of Christian Nationalism engagement are linked with spirituality, an area commonly overlooked. Overall, results suggest that the biggest supporters of Christian Nationalism are more less in tune with their spirituality than they may claim.

Jul 21, 2025

Measuring religious environment, and its relationship with sexual minority mental health

In a new open access paper, we show that religiousness may influence health through structural pathways. We introduce new ways of measuring 'objective' religious environment and conservative policty environment.

May 26, 2025

New Paper on Gender Disparities in Next-Gen Religious Leaders

Using a sample of male and female emerging religious leaders, we examine differences on health, spirituality, character, and more.

Apr 22, 2025

How might religiously based family expectations be associated with LGBTQ+ mental health?

My first, first-authored, paper demonstrates how religious family expectations is associated with depression, but can be buffered when LGBTQ+ people are more authentic with themselves.

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Research Interests

My research is ultimately informed by my commitment to creating lasting change for the health and well-being of LGBTQ+ people within the context of religion.

I engaged in modeling how religion/spirituality across varying socioecological levels are associated with health for LGBTQ+ individuals.
I currently pursuing efforts in meta-science focused on advancing methodological rigor in LGBTQ+ health research. This includes critically examining dominant theoretical frameworks, methodological innovations (e.g., Bayesian inference), and creation of software/resources to advance the quantitative infrastructure of LGBTQ+ science.
As part of my commitment to translational research, I seek to collaborate with religious communities to develop empirically-supported, culturally-responsive resources and training protocols. This work aims to enhance the capacity of religious leaders, institutions, and families to effectively support LGBTQ+ individuals in ways that honor both their faith commitments and sexual/gender identities.

Education & Training

Prior to beginning his doctoral studies, Seungju earned his B.A. in Psychology magna cum laude from Wheaton College, where he completed an honors thesis examining psychological well-being in religious mixed-orientation marriages during his junior year. His research training began as a freshman working with Dr. Sandra Rueger, before joining Dr. Mark Yarhouse at the Sexuality and Gender Identity Institute, where he contributed to a national study investigating the complex intersection of faith and LGBTQ+ identities.

Expanding his research training before his senior year, Seungju established significant external collaborations with leading researchers. At Utah State University, he worked with Dr. Tyler Lefevor examining the effects of religiousness and spirituality on LGBTQ+ mental health, where he developed skills in psychometric scale development and validation using R’s {psych} and {lavaan} packages.

Simultaneously, Seungju joined Dr. David Wang at Fuller Theological Seminary, analyzing longitudinal data from a $1.9 million study on spiritual formation. This collaboration strengthened his experience in sophisticated longitudinal modeling using R and Mplus, examining complex patterns of change over time.

His quantitative methodological expertise was further enhanced when he was selected for the competitive NSF-REU Health Equity summer internship at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Working with Drs. Katie Edwards and Lorey Wheeler on multiple NIH-funded studies examining LGBTQ+ youth and emerging adults, Seungju gained advanced skills for identifying mischievous responders in survey data, regression models, and scale development. He was later recruited as a post-bac research associate at the UNL methodology and psychometrics center.

Before entering graduate school, Seungju was awarded the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, among one of the only awardees at Wheaton.

Footnotes

Click here to learn how to pronounce my name↩︎