Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-27-2017
Publication Source
Society and Mental Health
First Page
1
Last Page
20
Publisher
SAGE Publications
ISSN
2156-8731
Abstract
Guided by the stress process tradition, complex links between religion and mental health have received growing attention from researchers. This study gauges individuals’ public and private religiosity, uses a novel measure of environmental stress—negative media portrayal of religion—and presents two divergent hypotheses: (1) religiosity as stress-exacerbating attachment to valued identities producing mental health vulnerability to threat and (2) religiosity as stress-buffering social psychological resource. To assess these hypotheses, we analyze three mental health outcomes (generalized anxiety, social anxiety, and general mental health problems) in national U.S. data from 2010 (N = 1,714). Our findings align with the stress-buffering perspective. Results show that individuals low in public and private religiosity tend to have worse mental health with greater negative media portrayal. High public or private religiosity tends to nullify the relationship between negative media portrayal and mental health.
Keywords
religion, mental health, stress, psychosocial resources, self-concept
Recommended Citation
Repository citation: Stroope, Samuel; Walker, Mark H.; and Franzen, Aaron B., "Stress Buffer or Identity Threat?: Negative Media Portrayal, Public and Private Religious Involvement, and Mental Health in a National Sample of US Adults" (2017). Faculty Publications. Paper 1435.
https://digitalcommons.hope.edu/faculty_publications/1435
Published in: Society and Mental Health, March 27, 2017, pages 1-20. Copyright © 2017 SAGE Publications.
Comments
Samuel Stroope, Mark H. Walker, Aaron B. Franzen, Stress Buffer or Identity Threat?, Society and Metal Health (XX)(X) pp. 1-20. Copyright © 2017 (American Sociological Association). Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications.