It generally is accepted that religiosity is associated with increased optimism and decreased pessimism. However, the empirical link between religiosity and optimistic and pessimistic expectancy outcomes remains underexamined. This study explored the association between early and current organizational religiosity, subjective religiosity and spirituality, positive and negative perceived relationship with God, and dispositional optimism and pessimism among a sample of African Americans (N = 307). Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that age, subjective spirituality, and a positive relationship with God were positive, independent predictors of optimism. Education, combined household income, and subjective spirituality negatively predicted pessimism. Negative relationship with God was a positive predictor of pessimism. Subjective religiosity and early and current organizational religious involvement did not predict optimism or pessimism. The significance of these findings is discussed.

This focus group study examines the use of ministerial support among African American adults with regard to (1) the issues taken to ministers by church members, (2) the issues not taken to ministers by church members, and (3) the factors that inform people's decisions about whether or not to seek ministerial support. Content analysis of narratives from 13 focus groups revealed significant overlap in the range of concerns for which people seek support and those issues for which they will not seek ministerial help. The factors that influence peoples' decisions included shame as well as evaluations of minister character, sincerity, and skill set. Narrative examples are used to elucidate each theme, and the implications of the findings for theory, research, and practice are discussed.

This study examined use of ministers for assistance with a serious personal problem within a nationally representative sample of African Americans (National Survey of American Life-2001Life- -2003. Different perspectives on the use of ministers-social stratification, religious socialization, and clinical/problem-oriented approach-were proposed and tested using logistic regression analyses with demographic, religious involvement, and problem type factors as predictors. Study findings supported religious socialization and clinical/problem-oriented explanations indicating that persons who are heavily invested in religious pursuits and organizations (i.e., women, frequent attenders) are more likely than their counterparts to use ministerial assistance. Contrary to expectations from the social stratification perspective, positive income and education effects indicated that higher status individuals were more likely to report use of ministers. Finally, problems involving bereavement are especially suited for assistance from ministers owing to their inherent nature (e.g., questions of ultimate meaning) and the extensive array of ministerial support and church resources that are available to address the issue. Keywords ministers; African American men and women; National Survey of American Life; logistic regression; socioemotional support; religious socialization; social stratification; clinical/problemoriented approachCorrespondence concerning this article should be addressed to Linda Chatters, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, 1420 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor, MI 48109. Electronic mail may be sent to chatters@umich.edu. Nyasha Grayman is now at Goucher College. NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptAm J Orthopsychiatry. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2012 January 1. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS, 2001) reports that relative to Whites, ethnic and racial minority groups "have less access to and availability of care, and tend to receive poorer quality mental health services" (p. 5). These disparities in access and availability have resulted in unaddressed psychological needs (DHHS, 2001) and have raised compelling questions about the contexts in which African Americans can and do receive mental health care. Scholars have noted consistently that African Americans are less likely than members of other racial and ethnic groups to access or use formal mental health services including psychologists and psychiatrists (Alvidrez, 1999;Barrio, Yamada, Hough, Hawthorne, Garcia, & Jeste, 2003; DHHS, 2001;Padgett, Patrick, & Burns, 1994;Snowden, 2001;Wang et al., 2005). Further, when African Americans do access mental health services, it is in primary care contexts (e.g., emergency rooms) and from sources (e.g., emergency room physicians) that are not explicitly intended to provide such services (DHHS, 2001;Neighbors et al., 2007;Snowden, 1999). African American men are more likely to access mental health care through pathways such as the justice system (Takeuchi & Cheung, 1998). A...

Contemporary social science paints a bleak picture of inner-city relational life. Indeed, the relationships of low-income, urban-residing Americans are represented as rife with distress, violence and family disruption. At present, no body of social scientific work systematically examines the factors that promote loving or selfless interactions among low-income, inner-city American individuals, families and communities. In an effort to fill that gap, this ethnographic study examined the motivations for altruism among a sample of adults (n = 40) who reside in an economically distressed housing community (i.e., housing project) in New York City. Content analyses of interviews indicated that participants attributed altruism to an interplay between 14 motives that were then ordered into four overarching categories of motives: (1) needs-centered motives, (2) norm-based motives deriving from religious/spiritual ideology, relationships and personal factors, (3) abstract motives (e.g., humanism), and (4) sociopolitical factors. The implications of these findings are discussed.

The literatures on the ways in which social identity and social position (e.g., gender, class, race) inform altruism have developed orthogonally. In this community-based qualitative study we use intersectionality theory to explore the complex ways in which social identity and social structures jointly influence altruism among African American adults (n= 40) in an urban, economically distressed housing community in New York City. Content analysis of participants' narratives reveals the ways in which gender, race, ethnicity, class, age, and urbanicity work in tandem to create differential patterns of vulnerability, differential needs, differential commitments to caring for particular subgroups, and informs how altruists are perceived by others. The implications of this work for future research on altruism are highlighted.