Summary
Many African Americans endure stressors that negatively impact their mental wellbeing (Ellison et al., 2017). However, the relationship between religious coping, hope, and suicidal ideation in African American couple relationships is less understood. Using the stress coping model of religion (Pargament, 1997) we analyzed an actor-partner interdependence mediation model with 525 cohabiting and married African American couples. We found significant direct actor effects between negative religious coping and suicidal ideation for both partners and a significant partner effect wherein men’s negative religious coping directly impacted women’s suicidal ideation. We also found several mediational or indirect effects wherein men and women’s positive and negative religious coping impacted both partners suicidal ideation through each of the partners’ hope. Efforts to move beyond common, simplistic measures of religiosity are vital to understanding the often complex, yet vital, relationship between religion and mental health outcomes among African American couples.

Objectives

• To explore the strength of African American couples through the practical application of the stress coping model of religion.
• To explicate risk and resilience factors of African American couples through positive and negative religious cooping.
• To empirically examine direct and indirect effects of religious coping of African American couples on hope and suicidal ideation.

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

Summary
Mentoring relationships have long been identified as a valuable means for supporting identity development in young adults and assisting these individuals in navigating life transitions. Guided by the broader mentoring literature and Social Cognitive Theory, this quantitative study aims to better understand spiritual mentoring relationships and their reciprocal influence on mentors and mentees through the actor-partner interdependence model using data gleaned from 189 spiritual mentoring pairs. Overall, this study serves as an initial and unique investigation into the dyadic nature of spiritual mentoring relationships and highlights numerous factors from both mentee and mentors’ perspectives that were associated with higher levels of mentee relationship quality, instrumental support, psychosocial support, and mentor relationship quality. Implications of the findings include improved insight for spiritual mentees and mentors and guidance for facilitators of spiritual mentoring relationships. Insights for mentoring researchers are discussed, including the necessity of considering both mentee and mentor perspectives.

Objectives

• Identify and describe three aspects of mentoring that have been established in the larger mentoring literature (instrumental support, psychosocial support, and relationship quality)
• Understand the factors that influence the three aspects of mentoring in this spiritual mentoring sample, including the unique variables identified by this study.
• Explain ways the mentees, mentors, and facilitators may be able to strengthen spiritual mentoring relationships based on the results of the study and describe the importance of utilizing dyadic data for investigating mentoring dynamics and outcomes.

Subject Codes: spirituality, developmental issues
Population Codes: emerging/young adulthood, religious/religiosity, spiritual
Method and Approach Codes: actor-partner interdependence model (APIM), theory [identify specific theory below]

Summary
Judging from current social science research literature on the role of families in children’s religious and spiritual development, children’s spirituality is vibrant in early childhood and then again in adolescence. But it appears to vanish, going mostly dark or dormant, during middle childhood, despite the rich developmental possibilities of this age period. This paper presents findings of a multi-pronged analysis of the state of research on the role of parents in children’s religious and spiritual development during middle childhood (ages 8 to 11). It included a scan of recent scientific literature, key informants interviews, interviews with parents, and a nationwide survey of parents. In addition to identifying major research gaps, the study found that parent and leader expectations are largely misaligned. The findings point to a critical need to reassess and reconnect socializing systems and practices during this pivotal developmental period.

Objectives

• To document the scope and range of research published in the past 15 years on the role of parents and families in children’s religious and spiritual development during middle childhood.
• To explore how parents’ implicitly prioritize religion and spirituality as goals for their children and as part of their responsibilities as parents.
• To identify opportunities for deepening parents’ intentional nurturing of their children’s religious and spiritual development during middle childhood based on current and emerging developmental research.

Subject Codes: spirituality, parenting, developmental issues
Population Codes: middle childhood, religious/religiosity, U.S.
Method and Approach Codes: needs assessment, parenting education, mixed-methodology