Abstract
Religiosity and spirituality are associated with reduced drug use in the general population, but it is unclear whether this relationship generalizes to sexual minorities. This study investigated the relationship between religious coping, drug use, and sexual orientation in a sample of HIV-infected African-American men (40 heterosexuals; 64 sexual minorities). Most participants (76%) reported being “moderately” or “very” religious. We found no main effect of religious coping or sexual orientation on frequency of drug use. However, there was an interaction between positive religious coping and sexual orientation. Among heterosexuals, positive religious coping was inversely associated with frequency of drug use. However, this relationship was not significant among sexual minorities. Findings suggest HIV-infected African-American sexual minorities living in the South may need additional coping resources to decrease vulnerability to drug use.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1368-1381 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | Journal of Religion and Health |
Volume | 58 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Aug 15 2019 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This research was supported by National Institute on Drug Abuse Grants F31-DA035131 (Skalski) and K23-DA028660 (Meade).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
Keywords
- African-Americans
- Drug use
- HIV/AIDS
- Religious coping
- Sexual orientation