Stressors in highly valued roles, religious coping, and mortality

Abstract

This study examines the relationships among stress, religious coping, and mortality. It is hypothesized that religious coping will offset the effects of stressors arising in highly valued roles on mortality, but similar stress-buffering effects will not emerge with events in less important roles. It is further predicted that the beneficial properties of religious coping will be especially evident among older adults with less education. Data from a nationwide survey of older adults (N = 819; M age = 73.8 years; 41% male) indicate that religious coping offsets the effects of stressors in highly valued roles on mortality, but only among older adults with less educational attainment (p < .05). In contrast, events in roles that are not valued highly do not have significant additive effects on mortality or significant interaction effects with religious coping.