Religion and Health in African Americans: The Role of Religious Coping

Objectives: To test a model of the religion- health connection to determine whether religious coping plays a mediating role in health behaviors in a national sample of African Americans. Methods: Participants completed a telephone survey (N = 2370) assessing religious involvement, religious coping, health behaviors, and demographics. Results: Religious beliefs were associated with greater vegetable consumption, which may be due to the role of positive and negative religious coping. Negative religious coping played a role in the relationship between religious beliefs and alcohol consumption. There was no evidence of mediation for fruit consumption, alcohol use in the past 30 days, or smoking. Conclusions: Findings have implications for theory and health promotion activities for African Americans.