Jitters on the Eve of the Great Recession: Is the Belief in Divine Control a Protective Resource?

One factor that has received surprisingly little attention in understanding the mental health consequences of the 2007–2008 financial crisis is religion. In this study, we ask: what is the relationship between two economic stressors—job insecurity and financial strain—and depression? And how do chan...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Upenieks, Laura (Author) ; Schieman, Scott (Author) ; Bierman, Alex (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Oxford Univ. Press 2022
In: Sociology of religion
Year: 2022, Volume: 83, Issue: 2, Pages: 194-221
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B USA / Faith in providence / Omnipotence / Mental health / Place of work / Insecurity / Economic crisis / History 2005-2009
IxTheo Classification:AE Psychology of religion
AG Religious life; material religion
KBQ North America
NBC Doctrine of God
TK Recent history
ZD Psychology
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Summary:One factor that has received surprisingly little attention in understanding the mental health consequences of the 2007–2008 financial crisis is religion. In this study, we ask: what is the relationship between two economic stressors—job insecurity and financial strain—and depression? And how do changes in religious belief, indexed by the sense of divine control, moderate those relationships? We use two waves of the U.S. Work, Stress, and Health (US-WSH) project (2005–2007), which occurred on the eve of the Great Recession. Results suggest that increases in job insecurity and financial strain are associated with increased levels of depression. However, those associations are (1) buffered among individuals who simultaneously increased in the sense of divine control and (2) exacerbated among individuals who decreased in the sense of divine control. Moreover, the buffering and exacerbating effects of divine control are significantly stronger among workers with lower levels of education.
ISSN:1759-8818
Contains:Enthalten in: Sociology of religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1093/socrel/srab018