Assessing coping responses within specific faith traditions: suffering in silence, stress, and depressive symptoms among older Catholics

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to empirically evaluate a coping response that is thought to be unique among older Catholics–suffering in silence. Two hypotheses are examined. The first predicts that older Catholics will be more likely than older Protestants to suffer in silence when ongoing economic difficulty is encountered. The second hypothesis specifies that the potentially deleterious effects of financial problems on depressive symptoms will be offset for older adults who prefer to suffer in silence. Data from an ongoing nationwide survey of older people in the United States provide support for both hypotheses.

Keywords:

• coping responses
• stress
• suffering

Acknowledgement

This research was supported by grants from the National Institute on Aging (R01 AG026259; R01 AG014749) and a grant from the John Templeton Foundation that was administered through the Duke University Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health.

Notes

Note

1. Preliminary analysis revealed that there were no significant race differences in the data. Consequently, the data were weighted so that the sample represents the proportion of older whites and older blacks in the United States. This helps ensure that the data are more representative and that the findings can be generalised to the nation as a whole (see Groves et al., 2004) for a detailed justification for using sample weights in this manner).