This qualitative study examines the ways in which African American women use religion/spirituality to cope and to construct meaning in times of adversity. Content analysis of the narratives of a sample of African American women respondents (n = 23) revealed a set of eight nonoverlapping themes that explicate religiosity/spirituality's role in meaning-making and coping. Findings suggest that religion/spirituality help women to (1) interrogate and accept reality, (2) gain the insight and courage needed to engage in spiritual surrender, (3) confront and transcend limitations, (4) identify and grapple with existential questions and life lessons, (5) recognize purpose and destiny, (6) define character and act within subjectively meaningful moral principles, (7) achieve growth, and (8) trust in the viability of transcendent sources of knowledge and communication. Narrative examples are used to elucidate each theme. Findings point to the importance of relationships and intimacy in the meaning-making enterprise. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AgarM. (1996). The professional stranger: An informal introduction to ethnographyNew York: Academic Press.
2.
ApthekerB. (1982). Woman's legacy: Essays on race, sex and class in American historyAmherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press.
3.
BaerH. (1993). The limited empowerment of women in Black spiritual churches: An alternative vehicle to religious leadership. Sociology of Religion, 54, 65–82.
4.
BarwiseJ. (1988). On the circumstantial relation between meaning and content. In EcoU.SantabrogioM.VioliP. (Eds.), Meaning and mental representation (pp. 23–39. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
5.
BelenkyM.ClinchyB.GoldbergerN.TaruleJ. (1997). Women's ways of knowing: The development of self, voice, and mindNew York: Basic Books.
6.
BergerP.LuckmannT. (1966). The social construction of realityGarden City, NY: Anchor.
7.
BrodskyA. (2000). The role of religion in the lives of resilient, urban, African American single mothers. Journal of Community Psychology, 28, 199–219.
8.
BruceS. (1988). Symbolic interactionism: Perspective and method. The British Journal of Sociology, 39, 292–295.
9.
BulmanR.WortmanC. (1977). Attributions of blame and coping in the ‘real world’: Severe accident victims react to their lot. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35, 351–363.
10.
BurrisC.JacksonL.TarpleyW.SmithG. (1996). Religion as quest: The self-directed pursuit of meaning. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 22, 1068–1076.
11.
CannonK. (1993). Hitting a straight lick with a crooked stick: The womanist dilemma in the development of a Black liberation ethic. In ConeJ.WilmoreG. (Eds.), Black theology: A documentary history: Volume 2: 1980–1992 (pp. 300–308. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.
12.
ChamberlainK.ZikaS. (1992). Religiosity, meaning in life, and psychological well-being. In ChamberlainK.ZikaS. (Eds.), Religion and mental health (pp. 138–148. New York: Oxford University Press.
13.
CliffordA. (2001). Introducingfeminist theologyMaryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.
14.
ColeB.PargamentK. (1999). Spiritual surrender: A paradoxical path to control. In MillerW. (Ed.), Integrating spirituality into treatment: Resources for practitioners (pp. 179–198. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
15.
CollinsP. (1991). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowermentNew York: Routledge Press.
16.
ConwayK. (1985–86). Coping with the stress of medical problems among Black and White elderly. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 21, 39–48.
17.
DodsonJ.Townsend-GilkesC. (1986). Something within: Social change and collective endurance in the sacred world of Black Christian women. In ReutherR.KellerR. (Eds.), Women and religion in America: Volume 3: 1900–1968. A documentary history (pp. 80–130. New York: Harper and Row.
18.
DullV.SkokanL. (1995). A cognitive model of religion's influence on health. Journal of Social Issues, 51(2), 49–64.
19.
EllisonC. (1997). Religious involvement and the subjective quality of life among African Americans. In TaylorR.JacksonJ.ChattersL. (Eds.), Family life in Black America (pp. 117–131. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
20.
FiorenzaE. (1992). In memory of her: A feminist theological construction of Christian originsNew York: Crossroads.
21.
FranklV. (1984). Man's search for meaningNew York: Washington Square Press.
22.
FreudS. (1952). Totem and taboo: Some points of agreement between the mental lives of savages and neuroticsNew York: Norton.
23.
GatesH.Jr. (1988). The signifying monkeyNew York: Oxford University Press.
24.
GeertzC. (1973). The interpretation of culturesNew York: Basic Books.
25.
GilkesC. (1993). Womanist ways of seeing. In ConeJ.WilmoreG. (Eds.), Black theology: A documentary history: Volume 2: 1980–1992 (pp. 321–324. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.
26.
GilkesC. (2001). If it wasn't for the women: Black women's experience and womanist culture in church and communityMaryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.
27.
GluckmannM. (1970). Ritual. In CavendishR. (Ed.), Man, myth, and magicLondon: Phoebus Publishing.
28.
GrantJ. (1989). White women's Christ and Black women's Jesus: Feminist Christology and womanist responseAtlanta, GA: Scholars Press.
29.
GrantJ. (1993). Womanist theology: Black women's experience as a source for doing theology, with special reference to Christology. In ConeJ.WilmoreG. (Eds.), Black theology: A documentary history: Volume 2: 1980–1992 (pp. 273–289. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.
30.
HandalP.Black-LopezW.MoergenS. (1989). Preliminary investigation of the relationship between religion and psychological distress in Black women. Psychological Reports, 65, 971–975.
31.
HigginbothamE. (1997). The Black church: A gender perspective. In FulopT.RaboteauA. (Eds.), African American religion: Interpretive essays in history and culture (pp. 201–225. New York: Routledge.
32.
JagersR.SmithP. (1996). Further examination of the Spirituality Scale. Journal of Black Psychology, 22, 429–442.
33.
Johnson-LairdP. (1988). How is meaning mentally represented? In EcoU.SantabrogioM.VioliP. (Eds.), Meaning and mental representation (pp. 99–118. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
34.
KoenigH.GeorgeL.SieglerI. (1988). The use of religion and other emotion-regulating coping strategies among older adults. The Gerontologist, 28, 303–310.
35.
LakoffG.JohnsonM. (1980). Metaphors we live byChicago: University of Chicago Press.
36.
LehmannA.MyersJ. (1989). Magic, witchcraft and religion: An Anthropological study of the supernaturalMountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Co.
37.
LupferM.TolliverD.JacksonM. (1996). Explaining life altering occurrences: A test of the ‘God of the gaps’ hypothesis. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 35, 379–391.
38.
LykesM. (1983). Discrimination and coping in the lives of Black women: Analyses of oral history data. Journal of Social Issues, 39(3), 79–100.
39.
MarxK. (1990). Religion, the opium of the people. In PelikanJ. (Ed.), The world treasury of modern religious thought (pp. 79–91. Boston: Little, Brown, & Co.
40.
MattisJ. (2000). African American women's definitions of spirituality and religiosity. Journal of Black Psychology, 26, 101–122.
41.
MattisJ. (2001). Religion and African American political life. Political Psychology: Special Issue: Psychology as Politics, 22, 263–278.
42.
McAdooH. (1995). Stress levels, family help patterns, and religiosity in middle- and working-class African American single mothers. Journal of Black Psychology, 21, 424–449.
43.
McIntoshD. (1995). Religion as schema, with implications for the relation between religion and coping. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 5(1), 1–16.
44.
McKayN. (1989). Nineteenth-century Black women's spiritual autobiographies: Religious faith and self-empowerment. In Personal Narratives Group (Eds.), Interpreting women's lives: Feminist theory and personal narrative (pp. 139–154. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
45.
MechanicD. (1986). Role of social factors in health and well being: Biopsychosocial model from a social perspective. Integrative Psychiatry, 4, 2–7.
46.
MerrickE. (1999). An exploration of quality in qualitative research: Are “reliability” and “validity” relevant? In KopalaM.SuzukiL. (Eds.), Using qualitative methods in psychology (pp. 25–36. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
47.
MilesM.HubermanA. (1994). Qualitative data analysis. A sourcebook (2 Ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
48.
MinerM.McKnightJ. (1999). Religious attributions: Situational factors and effects on coping. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 38, 274–286.
49.
MyersL. (1980). Black women: Do they cope better?Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
50.
NeighborsH.JacksonJ.BowmanP.GurinG. (1983). Stress, coping, and Black mental health: Preliminary findings from a national studyNewbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
51.
NeighborsH.MusickM.WilliamsD. (1998). The African American minister as a source of help for serious personal crises: Bridge or barrier to mental health care?Health Education & Behavior: Special Issue: Public Health and Health Education in Faith Communities, 25, 759–777.
52.
NelsonT. (1997). He made a way out of no way: Religious experience in an African American congregation. Review of Religious Research, 39, 5–26.
53.
PargamentK. (1997). Psychology of religion and copingNew York: Guilford Press.
54.
ParkC.FolkmanS. (1997). Meaning in the context of stress and coping. Review of General Psychology, 1, 115–144.
55.
RennieD. (1999). Qualitative research: A matter of hermeneutics and the sociology of knowledge. In KopalaM.SuzukiL. (Eds.), Using qualitative methods in psychology (pp. 3–13. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
56.
ReutherR. (1986). Women-church: Theology and practiceNew York: Harper & Row.
57.
RiggsM. (1997). Can I get a witness: Prophetic religious voices of African American women: An anthologyMaryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.
58.
RitzemaR.YoungC. (1983). Causal schemata and the attribution of supernatural causality. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 11, 36–43.
59.
SmythK.WilliamsP. (1991). Patterns of coping in Black working women. Behavioral Medicine, Spring, 40–46.
60.
StackC. (1974). All our kin: Strategies for survival in a Black communityNew York: Harper and Row.
61.
StewartC. (1996). Street corner theology: Indigenous reflections on the reality of God in the African American experienceNashville, TN: James C. Winston.
62.
StraussA.CorbinJ. (1990). Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniquesNewbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
63.
SurreyJ. (1985). The “self-in-relation”: A theory of women's development. (Work in Progress, No. 13). Wellesley, MA: Stone Center Working Paper Series.
64.
TaylorR.MattisJ.ChattersL. (1999). Subjective religiosity among African Americans: A synthesis of findings from five national samples. Journal of Black Psychology, 25, 524–543.
65.
TaylorS. (1983). Adjustment to threatening events: A theory of cognitive adaptation. American Psychologist, 38, 1161–1173.
66.
ThompsonS. (1985). Finding positive meaning in a stressful event and coping. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 6, 279–295.
67.
WallaceM. (1978). Black macho and the myth of the superwomanNew York: Dial Press.
68.
WilliamsD. (1993). Womanist theology: Black women's voices. In ConeJ.WilmoreG. (Eds.), Black theology a documentary history: Volume 2: 1980–1992 (pp. 265–272. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.
69.
WilliamsD.LarsonD.BucklerR.HeckmannR.PyleC. (1991). Religion and psychological distress in a community sample. Social Science and Medicine, 32, 1257–1262.
70.
WoodsT.AntoniM.IronsonG.KlingD. (1999). Religiosity is associated with affective status in symptomatic HIV-infected African-American women. Journal of Health Psychology, 4, 317–326.
71.
WuthnowR. (1987). Meaning and moral order: Explorations in cultural analysisBerkeley, CA: University of California Press.
72.
ZinnbauerB.PargamentK.ColeB.RyeM.ButterE.BelavichT. (1997). Religiousness and spirituality: Unfuzzying the fuzzy. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 36, 549–556.
