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Religion and health in African Americans: the role of religious coping
Cheryl L Holt1, Eddie M Clark2, Katrina J Debnam3
1University of Maryland, School of Public Health, Department of Behavioral and Community Health, College Park, MD, USA. cholt14@umd.edu.
Objectives:
To test a model of the religion-health connection to determine whether religious coping plays a mediating role in health behaviors in a national sample of African Americans.
Methods:
Participants completed a telephone survey (N = 2370) assessing religious involvement, religious coping, health behaviors, and demographics.
Results:
Religious beliefs were associated with greater vegetable consumption, which may be due to the role of positive and negative religious coping. Negative religious coping played a role in the relationship between religious beliefs and alcohol consumption. There was no evidence of mediation for fruit consumption, alcohol use in the past 30 days, or smoking.
Conclusions:
Findings have implications for theory and health promotion activities for African Americans.
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