Review of Religious Research最新文献

Background: Few studies have examined the effects of discrimination on mental health specifically among older African Americans despite it being a common experience in this population. Further, knowledge on social resources, such as social relationships, that could mitigate the effects of discrimination is limited in this population. Given the historical and contemporaneous importance of the Black church in African American communities, church members are important support network members and a major source of social support for older African Americans.

Purpose: To address these knowledge gaps, this study will (1) examine the association between racial discrimination and psychiatric disorders; and (2) determine whether church relationships moderate the impact of racial discrimination on psychiatric disorders.

Methods: Data from African American respondents aged 55 and older were drawn from the National Survey of American Life (N = 837). Church relationship variables included receipt of emotional support from, frequency of contact with, and subjective closeness to church members. Regression analyses were used to test the study aims.

Results: Analyses indicated that more frequent experiences of racial discrimination were associated with meeting criteria for any DSM-IV disorder and a greater number of DSM-IV disorders. Significant interactions revealed that frequency of contact with and subjective closeness to church members mitigated the association between discrimination and meeting criteria for any 12-month disorder and number of 12-month disorders.

Conclusions and implications: Altogether, these findings support the literature on the detrimental effects of discrimination on the mental health of older African Americans and provide a more nuanced understanding of the role of church members in the lives of older African Americans. The study findings suggest that church relationships are effective stress coping resources for older African Americans dealing with discrimination. Given the importance and relevance of church members, initial clinical assessments should assess clients' level of religious involvement and relationships with church members.

Background: Although religious involvement tends to be associated with improved mental health, additional work is needed to identify the specific aspects of religious practice that are associated with positive mental health outcomes. Our study advances the literature by investigating how two unique forms of religious social support are associated with mental health.

Purpose: We explore whether support received in religious settings from fellow congregants or religious leaders is associated with participants' mental health. We address questions that are not only of interest to religion scholars, but that may also inform religious leaders and others whose work involves understanding connections between religious factors and psychological outcomes within religious communities.

Methods: We test several hypotheses using original data from the "Mental Health in Congregations Study (2017-2019)", a survey of Christian and Jewish congregants from South Texas and the Washington DC area (N = 1882). Surveys were collected using both paper and online surveys and included an extensive battery of religious and mental health measures.

Results: Congregant support has more robust direct associations with mental health outcomes than faith leader support. Increased congregant support is significantly associated (p < 0.001) with fewer symptoms of psychological distress (β = - 0.168), anxiety (β = - 0.159), and anger (β = - 0.190), as well as greater life satisfaction (β = 0.269) and optimism (β = 0.283). However, faith leader support moderates these associations such that congregant support is associated with better mental health only in cases where faith leader support is also high. When leader support is low, congregant support and mental health are not associated.

Conclusions and implications: At the conceptual level, our study adds to an extensive literature on the relationship between religious social support and mental health. Additionally, our work may provide important insights to religious leadership in terms of communications strategies, services, and resources that might enhance overall congregant mental health and well-being.

Background: COVID-19 and its associated restrictions around in-person gatherings have created unprecedented challenges for religious congregations and those who lead them. While several surveys have attempted to describe how pastors and congregations responded to COVID-19, these provide a relatively thin picture of how COVID-19 is impacting religious life. There is scant qualitative data describing the lived reality of religious leaders and communities during the pandemic.

Purpose and methods: This paper provides a more detailed look at how pastors and congregations experienced and responded to COVID-19 and its associated restrictions in the early period of the pandemic. To do so, we draw from 26 in-depth interviews with church-appointed United Methodist pastors conducted between June and August 2020. Pastors were asked to describe how their ministry changed as a result of COVID-19 and interviews were analyzed using applied thematic analysis approaches to identify the most common emergent themes.

Results: Pastors reported that COVID-19 fundamentally unsettled routine ways of doing ministry. This disruption generated both challenges and opportunities for clergy and their congregations. In the findings, we describe how clergy responded in key areas of ministry-worship and pastoral care-and analyze how the pandemic is (re)shaping the way that clergy understood their role as pastors and envisioned the future of the Church. We argue for the value of examining the pandemic as an "unsettled" cultural period (Swidler 1986) in which religious leaders found creative ways to (re)do ministry in the context of social distancing. Rather than starting from scratch, we found that pastors drew from and modified existing symbolic and practical tools to fit pandemic-related constraints on religious life. Notably, however, we found that "redoing" ministry was easier and more effective in some areas (worship) than others (pastoral care).

Conclusions and implications: The impact of COVID-19 on pastors and congregations is complex and not fully captured by survey research. This study provides a baseline for investigating similarities and differences in the responses of pastors within and across denominations and traditions. It also provides a baseline for assessing whether changes in ministry implemented during the early stages of the pandemic remain in place in the post-COVID world.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic was one of the most devastating disasters of the twenty-first century and has exacted a steep health and economic toll. During times of suffering caused by the pandemic, religion/spirituality may prove to be a consistent and valuable coping resource.

Purpose: We situate changes in religious importance and reliance on God as key aspects of religious life that may be important coping mechanisms in response to pandemic-related financial hardship, addressing a gap in the literature on religious coping during the pandemic and considering self-reported changes in religiosity.

Methods: We use data from a nationally representative sample of Americans that was collected in 2021 (N = 1704) and employ a series of OLS Regression Models.

Results: Our results suggest that relying more heavily on God was associated with lower psychological distress, and a stronger reliance on God buffered the deleterious consequences of financial strain on psychological distress. No such patterns were documented for religious importance.

Conclusion and implications: We discuss our findings within the broader religion and health literature as to whether secondary control via a divine power reduces or enhances individual agency and discuss religion/spirituality may be a consistent and valuable coping resource through adversity and suffering. Though it may be challenging to maintain, or increase, religious/spiritual beliefs in the face of adversity, that there were observed benefits to well-being for doing so could serve as insightful guidance for both religious leaders and R/S individuals.