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Abstract:
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For decades now researchers and clinicians have exhibited mounting interest in understanding the mental health status of Black Americans and the socio -cultural resources that influence it . Due to its historic and continued importance in the lives of African Americans , evidence suggests that the patterns of religious expression among Black Americans have a measurable impact on a variety of physical and mental health outcomes . Nevertheless , this work is not without its limitations , including its limited focus on just the additive effects of religion on health as well as ignoring the issue of ethnic heterogeneity among Blacks in the U .S .
Specifically , this work consists of three discrete chapters examining the multifaceted influence of religious involvement and stress on three dimensions of psychological well -being among Black Americans . Using two conceptual models from the life stress paradigm , this work addresses two research questions : (a ) Does religion involvement offset , either partly or entirely , the effect of stress on the psychological well -being of Black Americans ? , and (b ) Does religious involvement buffer (or mitigate ) the deleterious effects of stress on the psychological well -being of Black Americans ? The questions are assessed using multiple methodologies and data from two large -scale surveys with nationally representative samples of Black Americans .
The results reveal that religion plays a unique role in fostering the psychological well -being of Black Americans and may be particularly salient in the face of stress . Specifically , in the first study , religious attendance and religious support are positively associated with the life satisfaction of African Americans , while subjective religiosity was found to buffer the harmful effects of family -work conflict on life satisfaction .
The second study examines the interplay of religious involvement , childhood adversity , and self -perception . The results reveal that religious attendance and subjective religiousness do indeed protect against deleterious effects childhood adversity on psychological well -being . However , other aspects of religious involvement , specifically religious upbringing , exude the opposite effect .
The final chapter , on religion , racial discrimination and substance abuse , finds religious involvement deters substance abuse among Black Americans , however little support was found for religion in mitigating the effects of discrimination on substance abuse . Study implications and future directions are discussed . |