Religious coping strategies and perceived causes of sickness and health in South Africa

Verbum et Ecclesia

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Religious coping strategies and perceived causes of sickness and health in South Africa
 
Creator van Dyk, Peet J. van Dyk, Alta C.
 
Subject Religious Studies, Health Studies Health beliefs; Magic; Ancestors; Coping strategies; Religion
Description The purpose of this survey was to explore religious coping strategies and to what extent black South Africans directly attributed their health and/or diseases to supernatural forces such as the ancestors and magic. A total of 3000 structured questionnaires were distributed to South Africans of all ethnicities, of which 575 were received back, but only those received from black participants (411) were considered for this study. The SPSS 21 statistical program was used to analyse the data. The results of the study suggest that Mbiti’s remark that health and disease in Africa are seen primarily within a religious (i.e. supernatural) framework still holds true for the black South African participants in this study. More than 80% (81.5%) of the participants attributed their health and diseases primarily to the ancestors and magic,whilst only 16.1% of the participants ascribed any importance to natural causes of diseases(e.g. germs and unprotected sex). These beliefs were especially strong amongst city or town dwellers, people of higher educational level and members of so-called ’mainline’ churches (i.e.members of non-Zionist churches). Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The article is interdisciplinary in nature covering the following fields: religion, psychology; health studies.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor None
Date 2015-11-03
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Survey
Format text/html application/octet-stream text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/ve.v36i1.1409
 
Source Verbum et Ecclesia; Vol 36, No 1 (2015); 7 pages 2074-7705 1609-9982
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/1409/2641 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/1409/2642 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/1409/2643 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/1409/2591
 
Coverage South-Africa — All age groups and both genders; black
Rights Copyright (c) 2015 Peet J. van Dyk, Alta C. van Dyk https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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