Religious Coping Strategies and Mental Health Among Religious Jewish Gay Men in Israel
Among Religious Jewish Gay Men in Israel
Ifat Yossef, Guy Shilo, Riki Savaya
Bob Shapell School of Social Work, Tel Aviv University
Abstract
Background: Nowadays, in the western world, LGBTs are treated with much more respect and equality than in the past. However, this is not the case for religious Jewish gay men. The Bible explicitly forbids male to male sexual intercourse, and the religious sector generally view both homosexuality and gay men negatively. As a result, many religious Jewish gay men experience conflict between their religious and sexual identities, which, in turn, has negative cognitive, behavioral and emotional effects.
In times of stress many people turn to religion for aid in coping with difficulties, particularly religious persons for whom religion is a major part of their life. Research has shown that religion often has a positive impact on physical and mental health, but that it can also be a source of conflict and struggle. Religious ways of coping with stressful life events may be divided into positive and negative strategies. Positive strategies are usually related to better physical and mental health than negative ones.
This study examined the correlation between religious coping strategies and mental health among highly religious Jewish gay men in Israel. It also examined the roles of social acceptance of sexual orientation, internalized homophobia, and social LGBT relationships in moderating the correlation between religious coping strategies and mental health.
Methods: Snowballing and convenience sampling were used to recruit participants through online sites and forums aimed at LGBTs and religious persons. The sample consisted of 113 gay (67.3%) or bisexual (32.7%) men who were at least 18 years old (M=28.4), and who identified themselves as non-secular and highly religious. Most of them were Religious Zionist (49.5%) or ultra-orthodox (31%).
An online questionnaire tapping demographics and the following scales was employed: Social Acceptance of Sexual Orientation scale, Social LGBT Relationship scale, Mental Health Inventory (MHI), Internalized Homophobia Scale (IHP), and Jewish Religious Coping Scale (JCOPE). All the hypotheses were tested using hierarchic regression analysis.
Results: Findings show that religious Jewish gay men turn to religious coping strategies, both positive and negative, to deal with conflict between their religious and sexual identities, although positive strategies were used more often than negative ones. Correlations were found between the strategies and mental health outcomes. Moreover, positive coping strategies were related to level of acceptance by friends, LGBT online social relationships, and low internalized homophobia. The correlations between negative religious coping strategies and mental health were not affected by these factors.
Conclusions and Implications:
Negative religious coping strategies seem to have a stronger impact on religious gay men's' mental health than positive religious coping strategies. Using positive coping strategies seems to assist religious gay men only at medium levels of conflict. To our knowledge this is the first study to examine religious coping strategies among highly religious gay men. Its findings show some of the emotional and social factors affecting this population. They may assist in developing culturally and socially sensitive interventions for highly religious gay men.