Peace From on High? How Religion Moderates the Stress of Higher Status American Workers

Abstract Building on the stress process model, this study examines whether religiosity moderates the mental health consequences of higher-status work among American workers. Drawing on the stress of higher status (SHS) framework and job demands–resources (JD-R) theory, we analyze data from the 2023 Measuring Employment Sentiments and Social Inequality survey (MESSI; N = 1744), a nationally representative survey of American workers. We focus on three work-related stressors central to the stress of higher status—job authority, long work hours, and work–family conflict—and three dimensions of religion/spirituality: prayer, religious service attendance, and beliefs in divine control. Regression results show that divine control operates as a domain-specific moderator. It buffers the positive association between work–family conflict and psychological distress but shows a stress-exacerbation pattern in contexts of high job authority. In contrast, prayer and attendance exhibit modest main effects with psychological distress but do not significantly moderate stressor-distress associations. No patterns of moderation emerge for long work hours. Taken together, our findings highlight religion as a multidimensional and status-contingent resource, underscoring the importance of matching specific religious dimensions to particular stress processes in shaping mental health. We also propose several future directions to integrate religion with research on work and mental health within the SHS framework.