The relationship between religious coping strategies to gain control and well-being among African American college students

This study aimed to explore if religious coping strategies to gain control were related to well-being in a sample of African American college students. An additional purpose was to determine how religious coping strategies were associated with facets of spirituality. A multiple regression analysis was used to determine if collaborative religious coping, active religious surrender, and self-directing religious coping positively predicted well-being, and passive religious deferral and pleading for direct intercession negatively predicted well-being. Results demonstrated pleading for direct intercession positively predicted well-being and self-directing religious coping negatively predicted well-being. Bivariate correlations also revealed religiousness and cognitive orientation towards spirituality were negatively related to collaborative religious coping, active religious surrender, pleading for direct intercession, and self-directing religious coping. These results may have important implications for understanding factors that impact well-being and coping strategy use among African American college students.