Religious Beliefs as Moderator of Exposure to Violence in African American Adolescents

This study examined how spiritual beliefs and experiences moderate the effect of exposure to violence in the community on psychological well-being for urban African-American adolescents. Participants consisted of 214 African-American adolescents attending an inner city parochial high school in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. In this study, the effects of exposure to violence in the community were moderated by daily spiritual experiences for satisfaction with life. Additionally, daily spiritual experiences and positive religious coping contributed incremental significant variance to satisfaction with life and positive affect over and above demographic factors and the perception of family support. The religious variables in this study did not contribute significantly to negative psychological outcomes. These overall findings suggest a significant relationship between spirituality and positive psychological outcomes for urban African-American adolescents exposed to violence in the community.