Religion and Health for Black Youth: A Global Focus

Dear Colleagues,

Religious involvement continues to have multifaceted roles for health and well-being outcomes for Black youth and emerging adults. However, the majority of scholarships focus on religious service involvement, religious coping, and subjective religiosity within general samples of the African American population within the United States. Consequently, facets of religiosity among specifically Black children, adolescents and emerging adults remain significantly understudied. Of particular interest is the connection between the myriad social contexts that youth and emerging adults navigate (e.g., neighborhood, school, religious settings, relationships) and subsequent health behaviors and outcomes. More theoretical and empirical works are needed that explicate the role of ethnic, cultural, and theological diversity for religious youth and emerging adults across diasporic faith traditions.

This Special Issue of Religions seeks to advance transdisciplinary understanding of the following constructs, with an eye toward amplifying global diasporic perspectives:

• Congregational characteristics of religious communities that promote or hinder youth engagement;
• Religious diversity within Black communities in the United States (e.g., Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam, Jehovah Witnesses, Judaism, Latter-Day Saints (Mormonism), Seventh Day Adventism, and other faith traditions);
• Religious identity development and well-being for Black youth raised in inter-faith families vs. intra-faith (i.e., religious homogamy);
• Effects of discrimination and prejudice on religious commitment and health behaviors;
• Contributions of cultural or religious socialization on non-organizational or private religious involvement (e.g., prayer, reading, listening to or watching religious material);
• Religious experiences for Black adoptees in inter-racial families;
• The role of religious socialization and instruction in health outcomes (e.g., medical, mental, behavioral);
• The role of spiritual abuse or “church hurt” on mental health and well-being outcomes;
• The role of religion for health behaviors and outcomes of Black African and Caribbean immigrant youth;
• Black youth and emerging adults’ experiences with microaggressions and other forms of prejudice within religious communities.

Empirical studies using quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods in which religious factors function as independent variables or outcomes are welcome. Systematic reviews that address connections between religious and theological diversity and health and well-being for Black communities outside of the United States (e.g., the United Kingdom, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean) are also welcome.

Letters of intent (LOI) describing the proposed population and the type (empirical study, systematic review) and focus of the manuscript can be submitted by June 19, 2021. The deadline submission will be December 1, 2021.

Dr. Meredith O. Hope
Guest Editor

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• religion
• mental health
• Black people
• adolescence
• emerging adulthood
• behavioral health
• medical health
• discrimination
• prejudice