Doctoral Dissertation Research: Religiosity, Culture, and Well-being: A Study of Cultural Models and Health among Brazilian Pentecostals

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University of Alabama doctoral student, H.J. François Dengah, under the guidance of William W. Dressler, will investigate the influence of religious cultural consonance on well-being. In particular, this study asks if religious conceptions of ideal acolyte identity and behavior buffer daily stressors experienced by socially and economically marginalized members of Brazilian Pentecostal churches. Between 1960 and 1985, the Protestant population of Brazil quadrupled. This expansion however, is disproportionately among Brazil's poor, disenfranchised, and minority populations. This research posits that Pentecostal communities offer an alternative cultural-landscape to create identity, power, and status, which may contradict, compensate, and even challenge the dominant behavioral norms. Thus, religious cultural consonance may be a specific mechanism that marginalized Brazilian Pentecostals utilize to mitigate the physiological and psychological stress of their daily lives.This mixed-methods research will be conducted in Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil. The research will be conducted with the membership of two specific communities: The Assembléia de Deus (AD) and Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus (IURD). The AD is theologically more sectarian than the IURD, advocating a greater separation between their faith and the secular world. This theological difference will be valuable for examining the differential interaction of religiosity and sectarianism in the appraisal and embodiment of psycho-social stress. Participant observations and interviews will focus on (1) the construction and distribution of religious cultural models of ideal personhood and lifestyle; and (2) evaluating well-being through mental health surveys and physiological health measures.This research offers an understanding of how religion influences physiological and psychological well-being. More specifically, this research will empirically show how religion may be an adaptive strategy that impoverished populations utilize to moderate the stress of their daily lives by offering an alternative and attainable set of life goals and identities. Ultimately, this research will contribute to understanding the rapid Protestant growth occurring in Latin America and throughout the world.