Blake Victor Kent
Biographic Data
| ID | 111448 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Blake Victor Kent |
| GIVEN NAMES | Blake Victor |
| FAMILY NAME | Kent |
| SIGNATURE | KENT B V |
| AFFILIATIONS | Westmont College |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0782-9041 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 28 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 81 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 28 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
The structure of religion and spirituality in a diverse sample of adults in the United States
Objective: This paper details psychometric analyses of religion and spirituality (R/S) measures in a diverse sample of U.S. adults in the Study on Stress, Spirituality, and Health (SSSH). Methods: participants. Given our goal of identifying a robust, parsimonious set of R/S measures for common use in U.S. cohort studies, we analyzed the structure of individual R/S items in a combined sample and disregarded whether items were part of a pre-existin…
Who Turns to God, and How? Religious and Spiritual Identity Differentially Predict Religious Coping Strategy Use in the Study on Stress, Spirituality, and Health
Religious affiliations, religious practices, and health behaviors in US South Asians
OBJECTIVES: This study examined how religious affiliations and religious practices are related to health behaviors and clinical health behavior-related outcomes in US South Asians, an under-researched group. DESIGN: A novel religion/spirituality questionnaire was used in the Mediators of Atherosclerosis Among South Asians Living in America study (N = 983), the most comprehensive population-based health study of US South Asians. Analyses relied on…
Profiles of cardiometabolic risk and acculturation indicators among South Asians in the US
Background: South Asians (SA) represent the fastest growing US immigrant group, and previous studies have indicated that they face disproportionately high burden of cardiometabolic disease. Cardiometabolic disease manifests as a syndemic or synergistic epidemic encompassing multiple disease clusters influenced by biological, social, and psychological factors stemming from the acculturative process. This process may exacerbate morbidity within imm…
Do Religion and Spirituality Buffer the Effect of Childhood Trauma on Depressive Symptoms? Examination of a South Asian Cohort from the USA
Forgiveness and health across racial-ethnic cohorts
Empirical research has found a robust association between greater forgiveness and well-being, but we know little of how this may operate in diverse samples of respondents. This study draws on data from the Nurses' Health Study II (NHSII; White women) and the Mediators of Atherosclerosis in South Asians Living in America (MASALA) to address this gap and test the possible moderating role of religious attendance and perceived closeness with God. Reg…
Belief in miracles, religious/spiritual struggles, and depressive symptoms
Belief in miracles is widespread, extending to many religious traditions, societies, and cultures. This study examines the relationship between a belief that God heals physical illness through miracles with depressive symptoms, and the possible moderating role of religious/spiritual (R/S) struggles in buffering or exacerbating this relationship. We utilize the Study on Stress, Spirituality and Health (SSSH), which provides a wide array of R/S dat…
Why Is Religious Attendance Linked to More Anxiety in U.S. South Asians? The Mediating Role of Congregational Neglect
See You Sunday?' Effects of Attending a Specific Weekend Religious Service on Emotional Well-Being
Most studies of religious service attendance and emotional well-being are only capable of evaluating 'trait' aspects of religious attendance, or long-term patterns and habits that form an attendance routine. Methodological limitations make it difficult to capture the immediate (i.e., 'state') effects of attending a specific religious worship service. Using the SoulPulse Study, a 2-week microlongitudinal study consisting of two daily cell phone su…
Does Religious Service Attendance Modify the Relationship between Everyday Discrimination and Risk of Obesity? Results from the Study on Stress, Spirituality and Health
Perceptions of Accountability to God and Psychological Well-Being Among US Adults
Resource loss, positive religious coping, and suffering during the Covid-19 pandemic
Using data from a prospective cohort of US adults living with chronic illness (n = 184), we examined longitudinal associations between domains of resource loss assessed one month into the COVID-19 pandemic and suffering two months later. We also explored the role of positive religious coping in modifying relations between each type of resource loss and suffering, adjusting for a number of sociodemographics, chronic health conditions, religious/sp…
Do Religious/Spiritual Resources Moderate the Association Between Suffering and Religious/Spiritual Struggles? A Three-Wave Longitudinal Study of US Adults with Chronic Illness
In this prospective study of US adults with chronic illness (n = 302), we examined the associations of subjective suffering and religious/spiritual (R/S) resources (i.e., religious coping, religious commitment, and spiritual fortitude) with the subsequent experience of R/S struggles. Using a rigorous analytic approach that involved adjusting for numerous covariates and prior values of all exposures and the outcome assessed in Wave 1, we found tha…
Attachment to God and Psychological Distress
Previous religion/spirituality (R/S) research on attachment to God and mental well-being has relied entirely on linear models. Scholars, however, have called for more nuanced analysis of religious beliefs and dispositions relative to mental health, and several studies using a nonlinear approach have yielded fruitful results with a handful of R/S predictors. Relying on national data from the 2010 Baylor Religion Survey, this study investigates pot…
Depression, Religiosity, and Telomere Length in the Study on Stress, Spirituality, and Health (SSSH)
The Study on Stress, Spirituality, and Health (SSSH)
This paper describes the development and initial psychometric testing of the baseline Spirituality Survey (SS-1) from the Study on Stress, Spirituality, and Health (SSSH). The SS-1 contains a mixture of items selected from validated existing scales and new items generated to measure important constructs not captured by existing instruments, and our purpose here was to establish the validity of new and existing measures in a racially/ethnically di…
Parents, Peers, and Trajectories of Cigarette Smoking
This study examines the independent, relative, and additive associations between both parent and peer role models and longitudinal patterns of smoking across adolescence and early adulthood. An analysis of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health ( N = 10,166) reveals at least four distinct trajectories of smoking across ages 13 to 35 years: (a) nonsmokers, (b) late peak (almost 10 cigarettes per day around age 30),…
Religion and Spirituality among American Indian, South Asian, Black, Hispanic/Latina, and White Women in the Study on Stress, Spirituality, and Health
Social scientists have increasingly recognized the lack of diversity in survey research on American religion, resulting in a dearth of data on religion and spirituality (R/S) in understudied racial and ethnic groups. At the same time, epidemiological studies have increasingly diversified their racial and ethnic representation, but have collected few R/S measures to date. With a particular focus on American Indian and South Asian women (in additio…
Religion/Spirituality and Gender-Differentiated Trajectories of Depressive Symptoms Age 13–34
Adolescent Context and Depressive Symptom Trajectories in a National Sample
Do Daily Spiritual Experiences Moderate the Effect of Stressors on Psychological Well-being? A Smartphone-based Experience Sampling Study of Depressive Symptoms and Flourishing
Much of the survey research on religion/spirituality and mental health in the U.S. must be assumed to capture stable respondent traits when it is possible temporary states are actually being recorded. The smartphone-based experience sampling method (ESM) in the SoulPulse Study, which collected data twice a day for two weeks, allows an opportunity to examine this problem further by assessing state (single moment) and trait (two-week average) score…
Private religion/spirituality, self-rated health, and mental health among US South Asians
Mental health and self-rated health among U.S. South Asians
Objectives: Only one community-based study has assessed religious group involvement and health outcomes among South Asians in the U.S., with mixed results. Here, using a large, South Asian community-based sample, the effects of six religious group involvement predictors - religious tradition, attendance, group prayer, giving/receiving congregational emotional support, congregational neglect, and congregational criticism - were examined in relatio…
Attachment to God and Social Trust
Research suggests that religious participation is associated with feelings of social trust. A separate line of work shows that individuals who develop secure, intimate relationships with parents, caregivers, and others have higher levels of trust than those who do not. The current study integrates these two strands of theory and research by examining (1) whether attachment to God has a unique association with social trust, (2) whether different a…
To Know and Be Known
We assess the gender gap in U.S. Christianity by examining in a national sample (Baylor Religion Survey 2010) a particularly robust measure of religiosity: biblical literalism. Women are more likely to report biblical literalism than men in bivariate comparisons, but we argue that intimate attachment to God is a related intervening mechanism. The results of this study indicate: (1) intimate attachment to God is associated with more literal views …
Prayer, Attachment to God, and Changes in Psychological Well-Being in Later Life
These findings shed light on the complex relationship between prayer and PWB by showing that the effects of prayer are contingent upon one's perceived relationship with God
Do Daily Spiritual Experiences Moderate the Effect of Stressors on Psychological Well-being? A Smartphone-based Experience Sampling Study of Depressive Symptoms and Flourishing
Much of the survey research on religion/spirituality and mental health in the U.S. must be assumed to capture stable respondent traits when it is possible temporary states are actually being recorded. The smartphone-based experience sampling method (ESM) in the SoulPulse Study, which collected data twice a day for two weeks, allows an opportunity to examine this problem further by assessing state (single moment) and trait (two-week average) score…
Attachment to God, Vocational Calling, and Worker Contentment
Existing organizational research overlooks divine attachment as a "personal characteristic" relevant to work. We argue that secure attachment to God as an internal working model can function as a "secure base" from which individuals form meaningful attachments to their workplace and work position. We further hypothesize that a sense of vocational calling (i.e., a belief that God calls individuals to particular work settings or jobs) will mediate …
Attachment to God and Social Trust
Research suggests that religious participation is associated with feelings of social trust. A separate line of work shows that individuals who develop secure, intimate relationships with parents, caregivers, and others have higher levels of trust than those who do not. The current study integrates these two strands of theory and research by examining (1) whether attachment to God has a unique association with social trust, (2) whether different a…
To Know and Be Known
We assess the gender gap in U.S. Christianity by examining in a national sample (Baylor Religion Survey 2010) a particularly robust measure of religiosity: biblical literalism. Women are more likely to report biblical literalism than men in bivariate comparisons, but we argue that intimate attachment to God is a related intervening mechanism. The results of this study indicate: (1) intimate attachment to God is associated with more literal views …
Attachment to God, Tenure, Race, and Participation in Congregational Life
The vitality of religious congregations is dependent on how effectively they attract congregants and mobilize participation, and people are more likely to participate when they share similar characteristics with other congregants. This study suggests attachment to God is a fundamental "behavioral and intrapersonal characteristic" which distinguishes participants from one another, contributing to varying levels of participation in congregational a…
The Study on Stress, Spirituality, and Health (SSSH)
This paper describes the development and initial psychometric testing of the baseline Spirituality Survey (SS-1) from the Study on Stress, Spirituality, and Health (SSSH). The SS-1 contains a mixture of items selected from validated existing scales and new items generated to measure important constructs not captured by existing instruments, and our purpose here was to establish the validity of new and existing measures in a racially/ethnically di…
Religion and Spirituality among American Indian, South Asian, Black, Hispanic/Latina, and White Women in the Study on Stress, Spirituality, and Health
Social scientists have increasingly recognized the lack of diversity in survey research on American religion, resulting in a dearth of data on religion and spirituality (R/S) in understudied racial and ethnic groups. At the same time, epidemiological studies have increasingly diversified their racial and ethnic representation, but have collected few R/S measures to date. With a particular focus on American Indian and South Asian women (in additio…
Mental health and self-rated health among U.S. South Asians
Objectives: Only one community-based study has assessed religious group involvement and health outcomes among South Asians in the U.S., with mixed results. Here, using a large, South Asian community-based sample, the effects of six religious group involvement predictors - religious tradition, attendance, group prayer, giving/receiving congregational emotional support, congregational neglect, and congregational criticism - were examined in relatio…
Parents, Peers, and Trajectories of Cigarette Smoking
This study examines the independent, relative, and additive associations between both parent and peer role models and longitudinal patterns of smoking across adolescence and early adulthood. An analysis of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health ( N = 10,166) reveals at least four distinct trajectories of smoking across ages 13 to 35 years: (a) nonsmokers, (b) late peak (almost 10 cigarettes per day around age 30),…
Attachment to God and Psychological Distress
Previous religion/spirituality (R/S) research on attachment to God and mental well-being has relied entirely on linear models. Scholars, however, have called for more nuanced analysis of religious beliefs and dispositions relative to mental health, and several studies using a nonlinear approach have yielded fruitful results with a handful of R/S predictors. Relying on national data from the 2010 Baylor Religion Survey, this study investigates pot…
Why Is Religious Attendance Linked to More Anxiety in U.S. South Asians? The Mediating Role of Congregational Neglect
See You Sunday?' Effects of Attending a Specific Weekend Religious Service on Emotional Well-Being
Most studies of religious service attendance and emotional well-being are only capable of evaluating 'trait' aspects of religious attendance, or long-term patterns and habits that form an attendance routine. Methodological limitations make it difficult to capture the immediate (i.e., 'state') effects of attending a specific religious worship service. Using the SoulPulse Study, a 2-week microlongitudinal study consisting of two daily cell phone su…
Do Religious/Spiritual Resources Moderate the Association Between Suffering and Religious/Spiritual Struggles? A Three-Wave Longitudinal Study of US Adults with Chronic Illness
In this prospective study of US adults with chronic illness (n = 302), we examined the associations of subjective suffering and religious/spiritual (R/S) resources (i.e., religious coping, religious commitment, and spiritual fortitude) with the subsequent experience of R/S struggles. Using a rigorous analytic approach that involved adjusting for numerous covariates and prior values of all exposures and the outcome assessed in Wave 1, we found tha…
Attachment to God, Vocational Calling, and Worker Contentment
Existing organizational research overlooks divine attachment as a "personal characteristic" relevant to work. We argue that secure attachment to God as an internal working model can function as a "secure base" from which individuals form meaningful attachments to their workplace and work position. We further hypothesize that a sense of vocational calling (i.e., a belief that God calls individuals to particular work settings or jobs) will mediate …
Prayer, Attachment to God, and Changes in Psychological Well-Being in Later Life
These findings shed light on the complex relationship between prayer and PWB by showing that the effects of prayer are contingent upon one's perceived relationship with God
Attachment to God, Tenure, Race, and Participation in Congregational Life
The vitality of religious congregations is dependent on how effectively they attract congregants and mobilize participation, and people are more likely to participate when they share similar characteristics with other congregants. This study suggests attachment to God is a fundamental "behavioral and intrapersonal characteristic" which distinguishes participants from one another, contributing to varying levels of participation in congregational a…
Private religion/spirituality, self-rated health, and mental health among US South Asians
Mental health and self-rated health among U.S. South Asians
Objectives: Only one community-based study has assessed religious group involvement and health outcomes among South Asians in the U.S., with mixed results. Here, using a large, South Asian community-based sample, the effects of six religious group involvement predictors - religious tradition, attendance, group prayer, giving/receiving congregational emotional support, congregational neglect, and congregational criticism - were examined in relatio…
Attachment to God and Social Trust
Research suggests that religious participation is associated with feelings of social trust. A separate line of work shows that individuals who develop secure, intimate relationships with parents, caregivers, and others have higher levels of trust than those who do not. The current study integrates these two strands of theory and research by examining (1) whether attachment to God has a unique association with social trust, (2) whether different a…
To Know and Be Known
We assess the gender gap in U.S. Christianity by examining in a national sample (Baylor Religion Survey 2010) a particularly robust measure of religiosity: biblical literalism. Women are more likely to report biblical literalism than men in bivariate comparisons, but we argue that intimate attachment to God is a related intervening mechanism. The results of this study indicate: (1) intimate attachment to God is associated with more literal views …
Religion/Spirituality and Gender-Differentiated Trajectories of Depressive Symptoms Age 13–34
Adolescent Context and Depressive Symptom Trajectories in a National Sample
Do Daily Spiritual Experiences Moderate the Effect of Stressors on Psychological Well-being? A Smartphone-based Experience Sampling Study of Depressive Symptoms and Flourishing
Much of the survey research on religion/spirituality and mental health in the U.S. must be assumed to capture stable respondent traits when it is possible temporary states are actually being recorded. The smartphone-based experience sampling method (ESM) in the SoulPulse Study, which collected data twice a day for two weeks, allows an opportunity to examine this problem further by assessing state (single moment) and trait (two-week average) score…
Depression, Religiosity, and Telomere Length in the Study on Stress, Spirituality, and Health (SSSH)
The Study on Stress, Spirituality, and Health (SSSH)
This paper describes the development and initial psychometric testing of the baseline Spirituality Survey (SS-1) from the Study on Stress, Spirituality, and Health (SSSH). The SS-1 contains a mixture of items selected from validated existing scales and new items generated to measure important constructs not captured by existing instruments, and our purpose here was to establish the validity of new and existing measures in a racially/ethnically di…
Parents, Peers, and Trajectories of Cigarette Smoking
This study examines the independent, relative, and additive associations between both parent and peer role models and longitudinal patterns of smoking across adolescence and early adulthood. An analysis of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health ( N = 10,166) reveals at least four distinct trajectories of smoking across ages 13 to 35 years: (a) nonsmokers, (b) late peak (almost 10 cigarettes per day around age 30),…
Religion and Spirituality among American Indian, South Asian, Black, Hispanic/Latina, and White Women in the Study on Stress, Spirituality, and Health
Social scientists have increasingly recognized the lack of diversity in survey research on American religion, resulting in a dearth of data on religion and spirituality (R/S) in understudied racial and ethnic groups. At the same time, epidemiological studies have increasingly diversified their racial and ethnic representation, but have collected few R/S measures to date. With a particular focus on American Indian and South Asian women (in additio…
Perceptions of Accountability to God and Psychological Well-Being Among US Adults
Resource loss, positive religious coping, and suffering during the Covid-19 pandemic
Using data from a prospective cohort of US adults living with chronic illness (n = 184), we examined longitudinal associations between domains of resource loss assessed one month into the COVID-19 pandemic and suffering two months later. We also explored the role of positive religious coping in modifying relations between each type of resource loss and suffering, adjusting for a number of sociodemographics, chronic health conditions, religious/sp…
Do Religious/Spiritual Resources Moderate the Association Between Suffering and Religious/Spiritual Struggles? A Three-Wave Longitudinal Study of US Adults with Chronic Illness
In this prospective study of US adults with chronic illness (n = 302), we examined the associations of subjective suffering and religious/spiritual (R/S) resources (i.e., religious coping, religious commitment, and spiritual fortitude) with the subsequent experience of R/S struggles. Using a rigorous analytic approach that involved adjusting for numerous covariates and prior values of all exposures and the outcome assessed in Wave 1, we found tha…
Attachment to God and Psychological Distress
Previous religion/spirituality (R/S) research on attachment to God and mental well-being has relied entirely on linear models. Scholars, however, have called for more nuanced analysis of religious beliefs and dispositions relative to mental health, and several studies using a nonlinear approach have yielded fruitful results with a handful of R/S predictors. Relying on national data from the 2010 Baylor Religion Survey, this study investigates pot…
Profiles of cardiometabolic risk and acculturation indicators among South Asians in the US
Background: South Asians (SA) represent the fastest growing US immigrant group, and previous studies have indicated that they face disproportionately high burden of cardiometabolic disease. Cardiometabolic disease manifests as a syndemic or synergistic epidemic encompassing multiple disease clusters influenced by biological, social, and psychological factors stemming from the acculturative process. This process may exacerbate morbidity within imm…
Do Religion and Spirituality Buffer the Effect of Childhood Trauma on Depressive Symptoms? Examination of a South Asian Cohort from the USA
Forgiveness and health across racial-ethnic cohorts
Empirical research has found a robust association between greater forgiveness and well-being, but we know little of how this may operate in diverse samples of respondents. This study draws on data from the Nurses' Health Study II (NHSII; White women) and the Mediators of Atherosclerosis in South Asians Living in America (MASALA) to address this gap and test the possible moderating role of religious attendance and perceived closeness with God. Reg…
Belief in miracles, religious/spiritual struggles, and depressive symptoms
Belief in miracles is widespread, extending to many religious traditions, societies, and cultures. This study examines the relationship between a belief that God heals physical illness through miracles with depressive symptoms, and the possible moderating role of religious/spiritual (R/S) struggles in buffering or exacerbating this relationship. We utilize the Study on Stress, Spirituality and Health (SSSH), which provides a wide array of R/S dat…
Why Is Religious Attendance Linked to More Anxiety in U.S. South Asians? The Mediating Role of Congregational Neglect
See You Sunday?' Effects of Attending a Specific Weekend Religious Service on Emotional Well-Being
Most studies of religious service attendance and emotional well-being are only capable of evaluating 'trait' aspects of religious attendance, or long-term patterns and habits that form an attendance routine. Methodological limitations make it difficult to capture the immediate (i.e., 'state') effects of attending a specific religious worship service. Using the SoulPulse Study, a 2-week microlongitudinal study consisting of two daily cell phone su…
Does Religious Service Attendance Modify the Relationship between Everyday Discrimination and Risk of Obesity? Results from the Study on Stress, Spirituality and Health
Psychology (26 works) · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology (24 works) · Medicine (19 works) · Social Psychology (18 works) · Clinical Psychology (17 works) · Spirituality (14 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Alternative medicine (9 works) · Attendance (9 works) · Psychiatry (9 works)