Welcome to the Dark Side: The Role of Religious/Spiritual Struggles in the Black-White Mental Health Paradox

Abstract

Over the past two decades, researchers have worked to make sense of the fact that black Americans tend to exhibit similar or better mental health profiles relative to their white counterparts. In this study, we extend previous research by proposing and testing a new potential explanation of the black-white mental health paradox: the dark side of religion or religious/spiritual (R/S) struggles. We also consider whether the association between R/S struggles and mental health is moderated by race. Our mediation analysis of data collected from a 2021 nationally representative sample of American adults ( n = 1,381) indicates that black respondents tend to exhibit lower levels of non-specific psychological distress than white respondents partly because black respondents also tend to report lower levels of R/S struggles. Our moderation analysis demonstrates that the positive association between R/S struggles and psychological distress is more pronounced for white respondents than for black respondents.