A symposium has presentations and discussion by 3-4 experts on a particular topic. A discussant integrates and summarizes the papers, develops implications for policy and practice from the research, and facilitates audience discussion.

Papers listed below are included in this session.

Discussants: Andrew Rose, Antonius Skipper
Chair: Anthony G. James

Summary
Throughout history African Americans have endured much, and their experiences with discrimination and racism continue today. Despite ongoing challenges, African Americans have also shown incredible resilience. Yet, little is empirically known about the role of religion and spirituality within African American couple relationships. Many prior studies regarding African Americans have been comparative, and deficit based. The focus of this symposium is to explicate specific strengths within African American couple relationships through examining the connection between religiosity and spirituality and their relations with hope and health outcomes. Examining dyadic data from 525 African American couples we were able to explore the strength of African American couples through the theories of religious coping, relational sanctification, and relational spirituality; explicate resilience factors of African American couples through their religiosity and spirituality; and empirically examine direct and indirect effects of religion and spirituality of African American couples on relational, physical, and mental health outcomes.

Objectives

• To explore the strength of African American couples through the theories of religious coping, relational sanctification, and relational spirituality
• To explicate resilience factors of African American couples through their religiosity and spirituality
• To empirically examine direct and indirect effects of religion and spirituality of African American couples on relational, physical, and mental health outcomes

Subject Codes: race, spirituality, resilience
Population Codes: African Americans, religious/religiosity, couples/coupled
Method and Approach Codes: diversity, actor-partner interdependence model (APIM), mediation/indirect effects models