Coping styles, depressive symptoms and race during the transition to adulthood

Abstract

In this study, we investigated the relationship between religious coping and depressive symptoms for 467 Black and White American college students from two large Midwestern Universities. We also examined the effects of different religious coping styles on depressive symptoms by race. Chi-square tests indicated that Blacks reported greater use of active and passive religious coping styles in comparison to Whites. Multivariate regression analyses indicated that neither active nor passive religious coping was independently related to depressive symptoms for Blacks or Whites, however, coping without invoking religious beliefs was related to fewer depressive symptoms for Blacks (ß = −0.329, p = 0.001). The results may provide evidence of race differences in religious coping patterns that exist during the transition to adulthood and that Black American young adults may utilise religious coping methods to mitigate psychological distress independent of other indicators of religiosity like church attendance and clergy support, which tend to increase with age.

Keywords:

• religious coping
• race
• depressive symptoms
• emerging adults