Relationship Between Religious Coping and Suicidal Behaviors Among African American Adolescents

Abstract

This study investigated whether hopelessness and depression were risk factors for suicidal thoughts and behaviors in African American adolescents and looked at whether religious participation and religious coping protected these students from suicidality. Participants were 212 African American high school students (133 females, 79 males). The results of multiple and logistic regression analyses found that hopelessness and depression were risk factors for suicidal ideation and attempts. Religious coping style was significantly related to suicidal behaviors: Self-directed coping was related to increased hopelessness, depression, and suicide attempts, and collaborative coping was related to increased reasons for living. Gender differences were found in symptoms of depression, religious coping style and religious participation. Results provide additional support for suicide interventions to target hopelessness and depressive symptoms and highlight the importance of examining the role of culturally salient variables, such as religious participation and religious coping style, when developing intervention programs for suicide.

Resilience, Cultural Beliefs, and Practices That Mitigate Suicide Risk Among African American Women Veterans

“…Our finding that religiosity was an important protective factor against suicide is consistent with prior theories that suggested African Americans have strong convictions against suicide due to religious beliefs (Early & Akers, 1993;Gibbs, 1997;Molock et al, 2006). Many participants emphasized the importance of reading the Bible and praying, which seemed to provide a sense of agency and calm.…”

“…Culture can be defined as the characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people, defined by language, religion, social habits, music, and arts, and expressed by shared patterns of behaviors and interactions, cognitive constructs, and understanding learned by socialization (Leong & Leach, 2008). It has been proposed that, for many African Americans, the most important protective factor against suicide is religiosity, or a strong conviction condemning suicide as sinful (Early & Akers, 1993;Gibbs, 1997;Molock, Puri, Matlin, & Barksdale, 2006). Consistent with this notion, researchers have found that lower suicide rates among African Americans are partially explained by a strong belief that suicide is an unacceptable option no matter how dire one's life circumstances (Early & Akers, 1993;Stack, 1998).…”

Value systems and centrality of religiosity as predictors of non-religious and religious coping with stress in early adulthood.

“…The strongest relationships were found between the centrality of religiosity and emotion-oriented coping and positive religious coping. In this sense, the findings are consistent with views expressed by Horwitz et al [31], who pointed out that religion may influence coping through emotional reactions, and also by Pargament et al [19], who stressed the role of positive religious cognitions in coping mechanisms.…”

“…Positive reinterpretations of negative events were especially noticeable in religious and spiritual coping. Research demonstrated that self-directed religious coping was related to increased hopelessness, depression and suicide attempts, whereas collaborative coping was related to increased reasons for living [31].…”

“…By revealing different types of associations between values, religiousness and non-religious and religious coping styles, the study contributes to the ongoing discussion on psychological factors that influence coping processes. The way in which young adults construct value systems and religiousness Archives of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, 2015; 3: [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] is essential to their abilities to face challenging situations and cope effectively with their adverse outcomes. These findings may also be helpful for mental health professionals who might become more attentive to religion as a motivational factor in the context of crisis-related struggles in early adulthood.…”