Religious Coping, Stress, and Mental and Physical Health: A Pooled Analysis Across Diverse US Cohorts in Studies on Stress, Spirituality, and Health (SSSH).

This study examined the association between perceived stress and mental/physical health (SF-12) and the moderating role of positive and negative religious coping using data (n = 5,059) from three cohorts (the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (n = 585), Nurses' Health Study II (n = 3,882), and The Strong Heart Study (n = 592)) which included Hispanic/Latino, non-Hispanic White, and American Indian individuals in the USA. By incorporating cohorts representing historically underserved racial and ethnic populations, this study contributes to the limited literature examining religious coping styles and stress across diverse groups. We examined the interaction between positive and negative religious coping and stress on mental/physical health, controlling for age, income, marital status, and education. Greater perceived stress was associated with poorer mental health [β = - 1.04 (- 1.37,- 0.7), p < 0.0001], but not worse physical health. Concerning moderation, positive religious coping attenuated [β = 0.23 (0.11, 0.35), p < 0.0001] and negative religious coping worsened [β = - 0.45 (- 0.88,- 0.02), p = 0.0034] the association between perceived stress and mental health in the combined analysis. Of note, patterns varied across cohorts, indicating that the role of religious coping style in shaping stress-health relationships may differ across cultural and religious contexts. Our findings highlight the importance of considering both positive and negative religious coping styles when examining psychosocial stress and mental health outcomes across diverse populations.