Enhanced Religiosity Following Illness? Assessing Evidence of Religious Consolation Among Black and White Americans

Abstract

This study assesses variation among Black and White Americans in the impact of ill-health on public and subjective religiosity. It is the first longitudinal assessment of race-based variation in “religious consolation.” The under-explored consolation thesis anticipates ill-health influencing religiosity rather than the reverse, with religiosity functioning as a coping resource marshaled by the ill. Effects across races of physical ill-health indicators (chronic illnesses and impaired functioning) on religiosity outcomes are the main focus; but across-race variation in psychological distress-induced “consolation” is also assessed. Findings yield only limited evidence of consolation in each race, and restricted variation across races: Change in impaired functioning slightly enhances Whites’ subjective religiosity; but that effect does not significantly eclipse the impact among Blacks. There is no evidence of physical illness-induced consolation among Blacks; and the proposition that Blacks are more inclined toward consolation than Whites is affirmed only for psychological distress. There are no signs in either race that consolation is intensified by aging or higher religiosity, and no significant across-race differentials in effects of these illness-age and illness-religiosity interactions on subsequent religiosity. The multi-population model utilizes Americans’ Changing Lives data.

Religious Involvement and Health Over Time: Predictive Effects in a National Sample of African Americans

“…Previous authors have suggested that individuals might increase their religious involvement in search of “consolation” or comfort when confronted with illnesses or serious health problems (Ferraro and Kelley-Moore 2000), but our findings are consistent with other recent reports that illness-induced consolation is not a common occurrence among African Americans (Oates 2013). Although “consolation” responses may still occur in specific cases, such as for those experiencing a health crisis, such experiences do not appear to be common or to occur often enough to be registered as a significant finding in a population-based sample.…”

“…Illness might then be perceived as a punishment for sin (Ellison and Levin 1998; Holt, Clark, and Roth 2014). Alternatively, physical or mental health problems might positively affect religious involvement by prompting affected persons to seek “consolation,” or relief from their difficulties through increased religious activities or strengthened religious beliefs (Ferraro and Kelley-Moore 2000; Oates 2013). There are multiple possible mechanisms, therefore, that might result in observed associations between religious involvement and health-related variables.…”

Should I Stay or Should I Go? Religious (Dis)Affiliation and Depressive Symptomatology

“…Do religious attitudes/behaviors cause changes in mental health, or do changes in mental health shape religious attitudes/behaviors? Cross-sectional studies of religion and health generally assume the former (see Ellison and Taylor 1996 for an exception), but a number of longitudinal studies show that some people turn to (or away from) religion during times of trial in their lives (Ferraro and Kelley-Moore 2001; Oates 2013; Pargament et al 2004). One strength of the current study is my test of the relationship between religious affiliation and changes in depressive symptomatology over time.…”

Effects of Religiosity Dimensions on Physical Health across Non-elderly Black and White American Panels

“…However, a recent longitudinal databased test of Black–White variation in such “religious consolation” (Oates 2013) generates underwhelming support for this thesis: while Blacks show more signs than Whites of turning to religiosity in the face of psychological distress, no such pattern is apparent for physical health. The present study does not retest for religious consolation.…”

“…One noticeably unresolved aspect is the possibility of variations among Black and White Americans. The small list of empirical studies gauging Black–White differences in the religiosity–physical health relationship includes four with cross-sectional designs (Drevenstedt 1998; Krause 2002, 2006; Ferraro and Koch 1994), one utilizing a regional elderly panel (Musick 1996), two assessing mortality risks in national adult panels (Hummer et al 1999; Musick et al 2004), and one gauging effects of health on religiosity in a national panel (Oates 2013). The notion that “religion may ‘work’ differently in shaping health outcomes” for different population segments (Ellison and Levin 1998) remains intriguing—as is the related possibility of variation across dominant and subordinate groups in relationships among coping resources, stressors, and health (Pearlin et al 1981).…”