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Sad Eyes, Crooked Crosses: Religious Struggles, Psychological Distress and the Mediating Role of Psychosocial Resources

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Abstract

In this paper, we employed data from the 2011 Miami-Dade Health Survey (n = 444) to formally test whether the association between religious struggles and psychological distress is mediated by psychosocial resources. We found that religious struggles were associated with lower levels of social support, self-esteem, the sense of control, and self-control. We also observed that religious struggles were associated with higher levels of non-specific emotional distress, depression, and anxiety, but not somatization. Our mediation analyses revealed significant indirect effects of religious struggles on emotional distress (not somatization) through social support, self-esteem, and the sense of control, but not self-control.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, The University of Texas at San Antonio, One UTSA Circle, San Antonio, TX, 78249-1644, USA

    Terrence D. Hill

  2. School of Sociology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA

    Liwen Zeng

  3. Department of Sociology, Loyola University, New Orleans, USA

    Simone Rambotti

  4. Department of Sociology, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, USA

    Krysia N. Mossakowski

  5. Department of Sociology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, USA

    Robert J. Johnson

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  1. Terrence D. Hill
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  2. Liwen Zeng
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Correspondence to Terrence D. Hill.

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Hill, T.D., Zeng, L., Rambotti, S. et al. Sad Eyes, Crooked Crosses: Religious Struggles, Psychological Distress and the Mediating Role of Psychosocial Resources. J Relig Health 60, 2573–2591 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-021-01273-y

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