Abstract
In this chapter, we examine the relevance of religion for mental health. We review how prominent forms of religious involvement influence mental health indirectly through the accumulation of resources and by preventing or attenuating the association between stress exposure and unfavorable mental health outcomes. We also discuss how religious involvement may at times deleteriously impact mental health through increased exposure to specific stressors and maladaptive forms of coping. In this effort, we summarize major conceptual, theoretical, and empirical perspectives related to three specific themes: (1) religious activity, (2) religious belief, and (3) religion during times of stress and adversity. Although our focus is primarily on Judeo-Christian institutions, practices, and beliefs in the USA, in a discussion of future research directions, we describe emerging comparative work that examines religion and mental health in a cross-cultural context.
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Notes
- 1.
Additional research has examined the relationship between a variety of aspects of religiosity and psychological well-being using more idiosyncratic samples, such as college students or members of a specific church. Because the applicability of this research to a sociological interest in gradients of mental health in the population is limited, we generally do not review this research here.
- 2.
It is also important to acknowledge the complexity of exchange dynamics within congregational social support systems. For instance, some studies have reported health benefits from the provision of support to others, and from volunteering in pro-social efforts, both of which may be initiated within religious groups (Musick & Wilson, 2003; Wilson & Janoski, 1995). In addition, there are suggestions that individuals gain more from balanced, symmetrical support systems (i.e., from giving and receiving support in roughly equal measure), as opposed to those characterized by dependency (i.e., receiving much more than giving) or exploitation (i.e., giving much more than receiving) (Maton, 1987).
- 3.
Tabak and Mickelson (2009) also reported a nonlinear relationship between attendance and distress for whites and suggested that this finding was because those who are very distressed felt a greater need to attend religious services or were not as able to engage in religious services (p. 59). They are also one of the few researchers to have compared non-Hispanic whites to Hispanics and found that the relationship between religious attendance and distress is stronger for Hispanics, although the relationship was similar for Hispanics and African-Americans.
- 4.
The measure of “relationship with God” includes frequency of praying and the strength of belief in the existence of God.
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Schieman, S., Bierman, A., Ellison, C.G. (2013). Religion and Mental Health. In: Aneshensel, C.S., Phelan, J.C., Bierman, A. (eds) Handbook of the Sociology of Mental Health. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4276-5_22
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