Caregiving Stress and Sleep Health: Exploring the Influence of Religious Involvement and Negative Social Interactions

This study examined the associations of role overload, negative social interactions, sleep, and the mediating effects of religious involvement among Black American caregivers. Data were drawn from the 2017 National Study of Caregiving and the National Health and Aging Trends Study. Participants included Black American caregivers of Medicare enrollees aged 65 and older (N = 699). Role overload was positively associated with sleep disturbance and indirectly associated with sleep disturbance through religious attendance. Negative social interactions between caregiver and care recipient moderated the associations between role overload, religious attendance, and sleep disturbance at medium and high levels, but not when negative social interactions occurred less frequently. Formal moderated mediation tests, however, indicated no significant moderating effects of negative social interactions. Findings support and extend the Stress Process Model by identifying religious attendance as a key pathway linking caregiving stress to sleep health among Black caregivers. While the Black Family Socio-Ecological Context Model positions religious involvement as a cultural resource, our findings suggest that religious involvement, when narrowly measured, may not universally buffer caregiver stress effects on sleep health. These findings underscore the importance of capturing multidimensional and contextual aspects of religious coping and caregiving in future research.