Public religious activities, stress, and mental well-being in the United States: the role of religious reframing in coping

ABSTRACT

Religious reframing is applying religious beliefs to an assessment of stressful personal situations. If public religious activities (e.g., religious volunteering) meet the necessary criteria to enable religious reframing, they may serve to limit (or “buffer”) the negative impact of stressors (e.g., family conflict) on mental well-being. Based on this dynamic, two out of three public religious activities (i.e., religious volunteering and religious group activities, but not religious service attendance) were predicted to buffer stress based on their capacity to enable religious reframing. Predictions were supported by hierarchical linear regressions using data for Americans aged 40 and older (N = 2579). This research proposes a framework for using religious reframing as the basis for making predictions about relative stress-buffering performances. It also finds that religious service attendance – the most common form of public religious involvement – does not enable religious reframing to the point of effectuating stress buffering.

KEYWORDS:

• Stress
• public religious activities
• coping
• mental well-being
• stress-buffering

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of AARP.

ORCID

G. Rainville http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1545-1977