Religious Coping Style and Cultural Worldview are Associated with Suicide Ideation Among African American Adults

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine whether specific religious coping styles and cultural worldview would be associated with thoughts of suicide given higher levels of stress in a community-based sample of African American adults. African American men and women (n = 134) completed measures of religious coping, cultural worldview, stressful life events, depression symptoms, and suicide ideation. Higher ratings of suicide ideation were observed for African Americans who endorsed a more self-directing religious coping style. The self-directing religious coping was more frequently endorsed by participants who identified with a more Eurocentric cultural worldview that espouses an individualist philosophy. Together, these findings provide some insight to how religious coping and culture are related to suicide vulnerability for African Americans who are not in clinical care.

Keywords:

• African American
• religious coping
• suicide
• worldview

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rheeda L. Walker

Rheeda L. Walker, Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, USA.

Temilola Salami

Temilola Salami, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA.

Sierra Carter

Sierra Carter, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

Kelci C. Flowers

Kelci C. Flowers, Psychology Service, Veterans Affairs Medical Center-Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.