Religious Coping Strategies and Mental Health Among Religious Jewish Gay and Bisexual Men

Guy Shilo*, Ifat Yossef, Riki Savaya

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

35 Scopus citations

Abstract

The present study examined the effects of positive and negative religious coping strategies on the mental health of 113 Israeli gay and bisexual Jewish males with high levels of religiosity, and how sexual identity formation (internalized homophobia and coming out) and societal variables (family and friends’ acceptance of sexual orientation and social connections within the LGBT community) mitigated the effects of religious coping strategies on mental health. Findings showed that when dealing with the stress arising from the conflict between religious and sexual identities, individuals used both positive and negative religious coping strategies, but only negative religious coping was associated with poorer mental health. In addition, only in the presence of social resources (social connections with the LGBT community and the acceptance of sexual orientation by friends), did the use of positive religious coping result in better mental health outcomes. These findings underlined the importance of these resilience social factors in the lives of religious Jewish gay and bisexual men.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1551-1561
Number of pages11
JournalArchives of Sexual Behavior
Volume45
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Aug 2016

Keywords

  • Judaism
  • Mental health
  • Minority stress
  • Religiosity
  • Sexual orientation

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