title: Religion and health in African Americans: the role of religious coping.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To test a model of the religion-health connection to determine whether religious coping plays a mediating role in health behaviors in a national sample of African Americans.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants completed a telephone survey (N = 2370) assessing religious involvement, religious coping, health behaviors, and demographics.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Religious beliefs were associated with greater vegetable consumption, which may be due to the role of positive and negative religious coping. Negative religious coping played a role in the relationship between religious beliefs and alcohol consumption. There was no evidence of mediation for fruit consumption, alcohol use in the past 30 days, or smoking.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Findings have implications for theory and health promotion activities for African Americans.
authors.affiliation: University of Maryland, School of Public Health, Department of Behavioral and Community Health, College Park, MD, USA. cholt14@umd.edu.
authors.forename: Cheryl L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Holt
authors.affiliation: Saint Louis University, Department of Psychology, Saint Louis, MO, USA.
authors.forename: Eddie M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Mental Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Katrina J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Debnam
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins University, Center on Aging and Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: David L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Roth
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000208:ethnology / Q000517:prevention & control; D040343:Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004032:Diet / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D005638:Fruit; D015438:Health Behavior / Q000208:ethnology*; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D012907:Smoking / Q000208:ethnology; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D029181:Spirituality; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014675:Vegetables