Mental Health Religion & Culture最新文献

This study utilized three waves of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) to examine patterns of suicidal thoughts and behaviors and changes in religiosity from adolescence into young adulthood between sexual minority and heterosexual individuals. Repeated measure latent class analysis revealed sexual minority participants were more likely to be in the "high adolescent/lower adult risk" and "moderate- to high-risk across ages" classes compared to heterosexual participants. Sexual minority participants were more likely than heterosexuals to be in the low religiosity trajectory at Wave 1 and remained less religious than heterosexual participants. Interactions among sexual identity, religiosity, and suicidality trajectories were not statistically significant. Findings suggest there may not be direct sexual orientation-related differences in longitudinal trends of religiosity and suicidality from adolescence into young adulthood. Future research should explore indirect paths as well as examine religiosity at earlier ages.

Empirical research has found a robust association between greater forgiveness and well-being, but we know little of how this may operate in diverse samples of respondents. This study draws on data from the Nurses' Health Study II (NHSII; White women) and the Mediators of Atherosclerosis in South Asians Living in America (MASALA) to address this gap and test the possible moderating role of religious attendance and perceived closeness with God. Regression results suggest that self and other forgiveness were associated with lower depressive symptoms in both samples. Yet, the relationship between self-forgiveness and lower depressive symptoms was stronger for White women who attended religious services more frequently and had a closer perceived relationship with God. In the South Asian sample, these same moderation patterns were observed, but for the forgiveness of others only. We suggest several directions for future research on forgiveness and well-being beyond predominantly White, Christian samples.

This multi-phase study tested the feasibility and acceptability of a tailored faith-based home activity toolbox developed to support African American families facing dementia. Phase 1 of the study focused on intervention design and used a qualitative descriptive design to identify culturally specific, meaningful, and engaging activities to include within a faith-based toolbox. In Phase 2, 17 African American caregiver dyads participated in a single-group pre- and post-test design. Of these, 13 caregivers were invited for follow-up interviews. Despite no statistical significance, trends in the data suggest engaging with the faith-based toolbox reduced caregiver burden, generated higher positive appraisal, increased expressive support, and decreased stress levels. Emerging themes include: (a) improved dyadic relationships, (b) increased social interactions for people living with dementia, (c) and challenges encountered during engagement. The results suggest the toolbox is a feasible and accepted approach to providing meaningful and engaging activities to African American families facing dementia.

Depression is a common consequence of sexual victimization. Although religious coping has been previously studied within the context of sexual victimization, there is a dearth of research examining the potential reciprocal relationships between religious coping and depression among adults with a history of sexual victimization at the daily level. The current study addresses this important gap by leveraging an intensive longitudinal design and data analysis to explore bidirectional daily relations between religious coping and depression symptoms in a community sample of adults with a history of sexual victimization. Participants were 84 individuals with a history of sexual assault who self-identified as religious (M _age = 37.43, 67.5% women, 83.1% white). Cross-lagged models showed that prior-day religious coping positively predicted next-day depression symptoms, whereas prior-day depression did not predict next-day religious coping. Findings underscore the potential utility of religious coping in the detection and treatment of depression in this population.

Belief in miracles is widespread, extending to many religious traditions, societies, and cultures. This study examines the relationship between a belief that God heals physical illness through miracles with depressive symptoms, and the possible moderating role of religious/spiritual (R/S) struggles in buffering or exacerbating this relationship. We utilize the Study on Stress, Spirituality and Health (SSSH), which provides a wide array of R/S data, including on South Asian (SA) and American Indian (AI) respondents for which there is an extreme lack of research. Results suggest that American Indians were almost twice as likely as South Asians or White nurses to believe in miracles by God in response to illness. We documented null associations between belief in miracles and depressive symptoms in the American Indian and South Asian samples, but a belief in miracles was linked to lower depressive symptoms among mostly White women (all of whom were employed as nurses, unlike the SA and AI samples). Across all three groups, R/S struggles had a stronger association with greater depressive symptoms for those who did not believe in miracles compared to those who did. We discuss possible directions for further research and encourage future work to explore how the various dimensions of R/S predict health and well-being and disease etiology beyond predominantly White U.S-based samples.