Title : Be anxious for nothing: Religious coping in an immigrant community
Abstract:
Mental illness does not discriminate; those of various ages, cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds can be susceptible to struggles. Immigrants are less likely to seek mental health treatment than nonimmigrants. Crucial deterrents for doing so include cost, lack of available resources, transportation, fear of missing work, and lack of insurance. Alongside other barriers such as linguistics, cultural differences and overall distrust of services, stigma plays a major role in immigrants’ access to care. While stigma surrounding the receipt of mental health care seems to be decreasing for Americans, this is not the case for all; immigrants continue to find difficulty in even acknowledging mental health. Some lack awareness not only of available mental health services, but also of basic mental health. Evidence suggests that some immigrants have first sought advice from religious leaders in times of need, sometimes delaying mental health treatment from licensed professionals. Studies have shown that religion can be a vital source of informal mental health care amongst immigrants. Of note, there are mixed results when considering the impact that religion and spirituality have on one’s mental health. It has been postulated that religious practices such as going to church are actually beneficial to one’s health, as being part of a religious organization provides a sense of belonging and promotes well-being. Conversely, some research argues that poor mental health outcomes have been linked to religiosity. Nevertheless, these conflicting findings leave room for further research and debate on the role of religion in mental health. Thus, it is worth addressing how religion can positively influence mental health and coping. This study seeks to assess the impact of a mental health and religious coping focused educational teaching on improving knowledge of mental health and religious coping among adult immigrants in New York City. In this Before-After Study, participants will rate both their baseline use of religious coping skills using the Brief RCOPE and knowledge of mental health. Following this, an educational intervention will be implemented in the form of a 45-minute evidenced based in-person teaching with a focus on mental health versus mental illness and religious coping. A post-test will be given at the end of the teaching session, to re-evaluate each participant’s understanding of mental health. In one month, the Brief RCOPE will be re-administered to the participants to evaluate their use of religious coping after having the opportunity to implement what was taught in the educational intervention. Data analysis will include comparing pre-test scores to post-test scores. This will be done using two paired t-tests. In order to address confounding variables, a mixed model will also be to assess whether covariates (age, gender) were impactful on the data. Results are pending at this time.
