MEDICAL ILLNESS, RELIGION, HEALTH CONTROL AND DEPRESSION OF INSTITUTIONALIZED MEDICALLY ILL VETERANS IN LONG-TERM-CARE

Utilizing multivariable multivariate regression procedures, we examine the relationships among medical illness, religion, health control bel iefs and depression in 97 mostly elderly, institutionalized medically ill veterans in long term-care. Controlling for other domains of indic ators, conditional canonical correlations showed that (1) religious mo tivation alone predicts religious coping, (2) religious coping alone p redicts health control beliefs, and (3) both severity of illness/lengt h of stay and health control beliefs predict depression. Result (1) is incompatible with the prediction by the multivariate belief-motivatio n theory of religiousness (MBMTR) (Schaefer and Gorsuch, 1991) that bo th religious belief and religious motivation determine religious copin g. Results (2) and (3) are consistent with our hypothesis that control beliefs mediate the relationship between religions coping and depress ion. It is argued that a different operationalization of religious bel ief may still support the MBMTR. The role of religion in coping with h ealth problems is discussed.