Is Irreligion a Risk Factor for Suicidality? Findings from the Nashville Stress and Health Study.

Suicide is a public health problem and one of the leading causes of death in the United States. Research exploring the linkages between religion and spirituality has received intermittent attention. Data was derived from the Nashville Stress and Health Study (2011-2014), a cross-sectional probability survey of black and white adults from Davidson County, Tennessee (n = 1252). Results indicate that those with no perceived belief in divine control had a higher likelihood of suicidality. This study provides a fresh perspective on the links between religious factors and suicidality by (a) considering multiple religious and spiritual domains and (b) focusing on the association between irreligion and suicidality.

Skin Tone and the Health Returns to Higher Status.

This study addresses two questions. First, why do Black Americans exhibit worse health outcomes than White Americans even at higher levels of socioeconomic status (SES)? Second, are diminished health returns to higher status concentrated among Black Americans with darker skin color? Novel hypotheses are tested with biosocial panel data from Add Health, a nationally representative cohort of Black and White adolescents who have transitioned to adulthood. We find that White and light-skin Black respondents report improved health after achieving higher SES, on average, while their darker-skin Black peers report declining health. These patterns persist regardless of controls for adolescent health status and unmeasured between-person heterogeneity. Moreover, increased inflammation tied to unfair treatment and perceptions of lower status helps to account for patterns of diminished health returns for dark-skin Black groups. Our study is the first to document skin tone heterogeneity in diminished health returns and one of few studies to identify life course stress processes underlying such disparities. We consider additional processes that could be examined in future studies, as well as the broader health and policy implications of our findings.

Is it the Sermon or the Choir? Pastoral Support, Congregant Support, and Worshiper Mental Health.

Background: Although religious involvement tends to be associated with improved mental health, additional work is needed to identify the specific aspects of religious practice that are associated with positive mental health outcomes. Our study advances the literature by investigating how two unique forms of religious social support are associated with mental health. Purpose: We explore whether support received in religious settings from fellow congregants or religious leaders is associated with participants' mental health. We address questions that are not only of interest to religion scholars, but that may also inform religious leaders and others whose work involves understanding connections between religious factors and psychological outcomes within religious communities. Methods: We test several hypotheses using original data from the "Mental Health in Congregations Study (2017-2019)", a survey of Christian and Jewish congregants from South Texas and the Washington DC area (N = 1882). Surveys were collected using both paper and online surveys and included an extensive battery of religious and mental health measures. Results: Congregant support has more robust direct associations with mental health outcomes than faith leader support. Increased congregant support is significantly associated (p < 0.001) with fewer symptoms of psychological distress (ß = - 0.168), anxiety (ß = - 0.159), and anger (ß = - 0.190), as well as greater life satisfaction (ß = 0.269) and optimism (ß = 0.283). However, faith leader support moderates these associations such that congregant support is associated with better mental health only in cases where faith leader support is also high. When leader support is low, congregant support and mental health are not associated. Conclusions and Implications: At the conceptual level, our study adds to an extensive literature on the relationship between religious social support and mental health. Additionally, our work may provide important insights to religious leadership in terms of communications strategies, services, and resources that might enhance overall congregant mental health and well-being.

Coping with an Evil World: Contextualizing the Stress-Buffering Role of Scripture Reading.

This research note advances the religious coping literature by testing whether belief in an evil world conditions the stress-moderating role of scripture reading. Hypotheses are tested with original data from a survey of Black, Hispanic, and White American churchgoers from South Texas (2017-2018; n = 1,115). Our findings show that reading scripture for insights into the future attenuates the positive association between major life events and psychological distress, but only for congregants who do not believe the world is fundamentally evil and sinful. For congregants who believe the world is evil, scripture reading amplifies the association between life events and distress. Whether scriptural coping is beneficial for mental health could be contingent on a believer's broader assumptions about the nature of the world we live in.

Religion, Combat Casualty Exposure, and Sleep Disturbance in the US Military.

Does religious involvement (i.e., attendance and salience) mitigate the association between combat casualty exposure and sleep disturbance among US military veterans? To address this question, we analyze cross-sectional survey data from the public-use version of the 2011 Health Related Behaviors Survey of Active Military Personnel. Results from multivariate regression models indicate: (1) Combat casualty exposure was positively associated with sleep disturbance; (2) religious salience both offset and moderated (i.e., buffered) the above association; and (3) religious attendance offset but did not moderate the above association. We discuss study implications and limitations, as well as some avenues for future research.

Fear of a Black Neighborhood: Anti-Black Racism and the Health of White Americans.

Does anti-Black racism harm White Americans? We advance hypotheses that address this question within the neighborhood context. Hypotheses are tested with neighborhood and survey data from a probability sample of White residents of Nashville, Tennessee. We find that regardless of neighborhood crime rates or socioeconomic compositions, Whites report heightened perceptions of crime and danger in their neighborhoods as the proportion of Black residents increases. Perceived neighborhood danger, in turn, predicts increased symptoms of psychophysiological distress. When stratified by socioeconomic status (SES), however, low-SES Whites also report perceptions of higher status when living near more Black neighbors, which entirely offsets their distress. We conclude that although anti-Black racism can ironically harm the health of White Americans, compensatory racist ideologies can also offset these harms, particularly for lower-status Whites. We situate our findings within broader discussions of anti-Black racism, residential segregation, and psychiatric disorders commonly observed among White Americans.

"Moving on Up? Neighborhood Status and Racism-Related Distress among Black Americans".

At all levels of socioeconomic status, Black Americans can expect to live shorter and sicker lives than their White counterparts. This study advances the perspective that anti-Black stigma from Whites precludes Blacks from reaping the full health rewards of higher status, particularly within the context of neighborhoods. To test this hypothesis, I merge census data with rich survey and biomarker data from the Nashville Stress and Health Study, a representative sample of Black and White adults from Davidson County, Tennessee (n = 1,252). Initially, I find that Blacks who reside in higher-status and mostly White communities exhibit lower levels of neuroendocrine stress hormones, relative to their peers living in disadvantaged Black neighborhoods. But Blacks in higher-status areas also report more perceived discrimination. In turn, perceived discrimination is associated with chronic bodily pain, as well as elevated stress hormones and blood pressure tied to high goal-striving stress, or fears of being blocked from reaching life goals. After accounting for racism-related stressors, Blacks exhibit comparable levels of physiological distress regardless of neighborhood context. The inverse is true for Whites, who report fewer stressors in higher-status neighborhoods, and less physiological distress than Blacks overall. Findings are discussed within the context of social evolutionary theories of the human brain and are dovetailed with broader racial health disparities in the United States.

Striving While Black: Race and the Psychophysiology of Goal Pursuit.

Population health scientists have largely overlooked anticipatory stressors and how different groups of people experience and cope with anticipatory stress. I address these gaps by examining black-white differences in the associations between an important anticipatory stressor-goal-striving stress (GSS)-and several measures of psychophysiology. Hypotheses focusing on racial differences in GSS and psychophysiology are tested using self-report and biomarker data from the Nashville Stress and Health Study (2011-2014), a cross-sectional probability survey of black and white working-age adults from Davidson County, Tennessee (n = 1,252). Compared to their white peers, blacks with higher GSS report greater self-esteem and fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety. However, increased GSS also predicts elevated levels of high-effort coping (i.e., John Henryism), neuroendocrine stress hormones, and blood pressure for blacks but not whites. I discuss the implications of these findings for scholars interested in the stress process and broader black-white health inequalities in the United States.

Parental Status and Biological Functioning: Findings from the Nashville Stress and Health Study.

Does childrearing affect the biological functioning of parents? To address this question, we analyze cross-sectional survey and biomarker data from Vanderbilt University's Nashville Stress and Health Study, a probability sample of non-Hispanic white and black working-age adults from Davidson County, Tennessee (2011-2014; n = 1,252). Multivariable regression analyses reveal a linear dose-response relationship between the number of children living in a respondent's home and (a) increased allostatic load, and (b) decreased leukocyte telomere length. We found no differences in biological functioning between childless respondents and empty-nest parents. These findings also withstood controls for a battery of socioeconomic factors. The implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Sleep quality among college students: exploring the role of a divine locus of sleep control.

OBJECTIVES: To explore (a) how perceptions of personal and divine control over one's sleep schedule combine in distinct ways to predict sleep quality among college students and (b) whether health behaviors and psychological distress mediate the associations between perceptions of sleep control and sleep quality. METHODS: We surveyed 1251 students attending a public university in South Texas. All measures were derived from self-reports. Binary logistic regression techniques were used to predict the odds of reporting high-quality sleep in the past month. Mediation analyses were used to decompose the estimated effects of perceptions of sleep control on sleep quality via smoking, drinking, and psychological distress. RESULTS: Compared to participants who reported both low personal control and low divine control over their sleep schedules, students who reported both high personal control and high divine control exhibited 148% greater odds of reporting high-quality sleep (odds ratio = 2.48; 95% confidence interval = 1.434-4.294). These same participants also showed the highest predicted probabilities of reporting high-quality sleep (22%) compared to students with other sleep control orientations. Mediation analyses indicated that reduced psychological distress partially accounted for these differences, whereas smoking and drinking behaviors did not. CONCLUSION: College students who felt they and God both shared full control over their sleep schedules reported the highest quality sleep, which was partially explained by their lower average levels of psychological distress.

Does Religious Involvement Mitigate the Effects of Major Discrimination on the Mental Health of African Americans? Findings from the Nashville Stress and Health Study.

Several decades of scholarly research have revealed the significant toll of discrimination experiences on the well-being of African Americans. Given these findings, investigators have become increasingly interested in uncovering any potential resources made available to African Americans for mitigating the psychosocial strains of discrimination. The current study contributes to this literature by testing whether various indicators of religious involvement - e.g. church attendance, prayer, and religious social support - buffer the noxious effects of major discrimination experiences on the mental health outcomes (i.e. depression and life satisfaction) of African Americans. We analyze data from the African American subsample (n=627) of Vanderbilt University's Nashville Stress and Health Study, a cross-sectional probability sample of adults living in Davidson County, Tennessee between the years 2011 and 2014. Results from multivariate regression models indicated: (1) experiences of major discrimination were positively associated with depression and negatively associated with life satisfaction, net of religious and sociodemographic controls; and (2) religious social support offset and buffered the adverse effects of major discrimination on both mental health outcomes, particularly for those respondents who reported seeking support the most often. We discuss the implications and limitations of our study, as well as avenues for future research.