Department of Counseling and Clinical Psychology, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA.
Health Psychol. 2012 May;31(3):394-7. doi: 10.1037/a0026665. Epub 2011 Dec 12.
Prospective research indicates that poor emotional functioning predicts obesity. The maladaptive coping hypothesis proposes that unhealthy eating is used to regulate emotion, leading to obesity. Given research suggesting that many utilize religion to cope with distress, we hypothesized that positive and negative religious coping would moderate links between emotional functioning and obesity. In addition, previous research focused on Christians and the relevance of religious coping to the Jewish context, where obesity may be of particular concern, was examined.
212 Jewish participants completed self-report health and emotional functioning measures as well as the Jewish Religious Coping scale.
Moderation analysis indicated that negative coping had no effect, while positive coping was a significant moderator. Specifically, poor emotional functioning predicted increased obesity among those with low, but not high, positive religious coping. This effect remained even after several possible confounding factors were controlled for, and the effect was large.
These findings further support the maladaptive coping hypothesis, indicating that religious coping may provide an alternative strategy to maladaptive eating. They also illustrate a possible mechanism by which religiosity correlates with better health and support the relevance of religious coping to the Jewish context.
前瞻性研究表明，情绪功能不良可预测肥胖。适应不良的应对假说提出，不健康的饮食被用来调节情绪，从而导致肥胖。鉴于研究表明许多人利用宗教来应对困境，我们假设积极和消极的宗教应对方式会调节情绪功能与肥胖之间的关系。此外，还研究了先前的研究集中在基督教徒身上，以及宗教应对方式与犹太教背景的相关性，因为肥胖在犹太教背景下可能是一个特别值得关注的问题。
212 名犹太参与者完成了自我报告的健康和情绪功能测量以及犹太宗教应对量表。
调节分析表明，消极应对没有影响，而积极应对是一个重要的调节因素。具体来说，情绪功能不良预测那些积极宗教应对程度低的人肥胖的风险增加，而不是那些积极宗教应对程度高的人。即使控制了几个可能的混杂因素，这种影响仍然存在，而且影响很大。
这些发现进一步支持了适应不良的应对假说，表明宗教应对可能提供了一种替代适应不良饮食的策略。它们还说明了宗教信仰与更好的健康相关的一种可能机制，并支持宗教应对方式与犹太教背景的相关性。
