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Stress, the Religious Coping Resources of Meaning Making, Forgiveness, and Divine Reliance and the Mental Health of Seventh-day Adventists
Abstract
Using survey of adults in a Seventh-day Adventist congregation in the mid-west, I find that there are associations between religious coping resources and mental health outcomes. I examine the main effects of religious coping resources on well-being and psychological distress and find that religious coping resources of meaning making and divine reliance increase the well-being of participants. The religious coping resource of meaning making decreases psychological distress, while the resource of divine reliance increases psychological distress. I next examine the direct effects of stressors on religious coping resources. If find support for a mobilization hypothesis, indicating that stress activates religious coping resources. I then test for mediation and moderation in the relationships between stressors and religious coping resources on mental health. I find no mediation or moderation for psychological distress. I do find mediation, in that stress in the form of trauma increases the religious coping resources of meaning making, forgiveness and divine reliance. When these religious coping resources are activated due to stress, they then dampen the effect of the stressor on well-being. I find a moderation effect in the relationship between stress in the form of financial strain and the religious coping resource of divine reliance on well-being. Finally, I find interactions in the relationships between trauma and meaning making and trauma and divine reliance on well-being. I find that individuals with lower levels of meaning making and divine reliance benefit from the interactions between trauma and the religious coping resource on well-being.
Subject Area
Religion|Mental health
Recommended Citation
Merchant, Lorri G, "Stress, the Religious Coping Resources of Meaning Making, Forgiveness, and Divine Reliance and the Mental Health of Seventh-day Adventists" (2018). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI10845533.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI10845533