Private Religiosity and Psychosocial Wellbeing Among African American and Caribbean Black Youth

• In Event: 2-196 - "Power, Love, and a Sound Mind?": Religion and Mental Health for Diverse Youth

Integrative Statement

Often cited as a developmental and cultural resource, religion offers Black youth cognitive and behavioral tools (e.g., attitudes, beliefs, rituals, and practices) that support youth’s navigation of adverse events and positive youth development (e.g., Chatters, 2000; King & Furrow, 2004; Mattis & Mattis, 2011). Religion has been widely studied; however, less attention has been given to the expression of private religiosity among Black youth. Further, existing studies often emphasize one aspect of private religiosity (e.g., prayer), presenting a less comprehensive picture of the construct. In addition, research that explores the link between private religiosity and varied psychosocial outcomes tend to focus on Black adults (Hays & Lincoln, 2017) – these links among Black adolescents are significantly understudied. Importantly, few studies address within ethnic group differences among Black youth (e.g., differences between African American (AA) and Caribbean Blacks (CB); these differences may be rooted in cultural and historical contexts as well as immigration experiences (Chatters, Taylor, Bullard, & Jackson, 2009). Thus, this study examines the association between private religiosity and psychosocial development among African American and Caribbean Black youth, and if linkages between private religiosity and psychosocial wellbeing will vary by ethnicity. We hypothesized that 1) greater private religiosity would be related to better psychosocial wellbeing outcomes; and 2) there would be differences in the religiosity-psychosocial wellbeing link for AA and CB youth.

Data were from 1170 Black adolescents (810 African American; 360 Caribbean Black) who participated in the National Survey of American Life Adolescent (NSAL-A) supplement study. Given the complex, multistage sample design, analyses are based on weighted data. Linear and non-linear regression analyses were performed using STATA 14.2. Main effects were examined for each outcome variable, controlling for age, family income, religious denomination, religious socialization, ethnicity (AA or CB), and gender (male or female). Interaction effects were examined using ethnicity as a moderator. Five items assessed private religiosity: reading religious materials; watching or listening to religious programs; listening to religious music; praying; and asking for prayer. All questions were measured on 4-point responses, ranging from (1) never to (4) very often. Psychosocial wellbeing outcomes included self- esteem, active coping, mastery, perceived stress, life satisfaction, and depression.

Logistic regression and linear regression results, respectively, showed significant main promotive effects for life satisfaction (OR=1.06; 95% CI=1.01, 1.12, p<.05), self-esteem (b=.02, 95% CI=.01, .03, p<.05), and coping (b=.33, 95% CI=.18, .49, p<.001), after controlling for all other variables in the model. No other significant main effects were observed. There were no significant interaction effects between religiosity and ethnicity on any of the psychosocial wellbeing outcomes. Results illuminate a promotive effect of private religiosity in this sample. Though no significant ethnicity and religiosity interaction effects were observed, findings suggest the importance of private religiosity as a key intervention target to support better psychosocial wellbeing among Black youth, in an effort to promote overall youth development.

Authors

• Theda Rose, University of Maryland School of Social Work
  Presenting Author

• Meredith O. Hope, University of Michigan School of Public Health
  Non-Presenting Author

• Dawn Thurman, Morgan State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Mian Hossain, Morgan State University
  Non-Presenting Author