If God is in Control of my Health, What Should I Do? The Importance of Religious, Ethnic, and Social Culture: a Comment on Umezawa et al.

Excerpt

Umezawa, Lu, You, Singer, Leake, and Maly [1] present an insightful piece of research that examines the relations of race, acculturation, and belief in divine control with psychological coping in the context of a breast cancer diagnosis. It may seem intuitive to conclude that when individuals believe God is in control of their health and lives, they utilize less active and more passive coping methods. However, the findings from the current study clearly contradict this notion by demonstrating that belief in divine control was positively associated with active/approach coping for all three racial/ethnic groups (i.e., non-Hispanic Whites, Latinas, and African Americans). Previous investigations have likewise suggested that belief in divine control is not necessarily predictive of passive or non-adaptive coping [e.g., 2, 3]. Yet, other research and occasional stories in the press indicate that belief in divine control does predict passivity [e.g., 4]. Consequently, researchers are left to ponder the influence of possible mediating and moderating variables. …