Associations Between Religious Coping and Anxiety Symptoms Among Emerging Adults in India: Religious Centrality as a Potential Moderator.

Anxiety disorders are globally prevalent, with the highest disease burden in low- and middle-income countries. However, most research on protective factors of anxiety is predominantly conducted in high-income countries. Focusing on India, the most populous middle-income country where religion is salient, this study examined the association between religious coping and generalised anxiety symptoms and whether aspects of social identity moderated this association. A religiously and ethnolinguistically diverse sample of emerging adults (N = 484, Mage = 20.48 years) completed measures of religious coping, religious centrality and anxiety. Results indicated that negative religious coping was positively associated with anxiety symptoms, whilst positive religious coping was unrelated to anxiety. Religious centrality did not moderate the relation between religious coping and anxiety. However, ethnolinguistic identity (Northeastern vs. other regions) moderated the association, such that negative religious coping predicted higher concurrent anxiety among Indians from other regions, but not among Northeasterners. Findings support the role of negative religious coping in anxiety and suggest investigations into the role of ethnolinguistic identity as a critical contributing factor to mental health.