Psychological wellbeing and belief in divine control during the third Covid-19 lockdown among The Episcopal Church

Village, A. and Francis, L.J. (2026) Psychological wellbeing and belief in divine control during the third Covid-19 lockdown among The Episcopal Church. Mental Health, Religion and Culture. ISSN 1367-4676

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Abstract

Designed to replicate an earlier study conducted among members of the Church of England, this study explored the connection between self-perceived change in psychological wellbeing during the pandemic (measured by The Index of Balanced Affect Change; TIBACh) and belief in divine control (measured by the God in Control of the Pandemic Scale; GiCoPS) among 3,430 lay or ordained members of The Episcopal Church in the USA. Belief in divine control was lower among women, older people, laity, and ethnically white participants; and higher among Evangelicals, Charismatics, and those holding conservative preferences for worship, doctrine and morality. After taking control variables into account, belief in divine control was associated with greater self-perceived increase in positive affect and lower self-perceived increase in negative affect.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Published by Taylor & Francis in 2026. This is an author accepted manuscript of a published open access article available at https://doi.org/10.1080/13674676.2025.2534513. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy.
Keywords:	Anglican divine control negative affect pandemic positive affect psychology of religion
Depositing User:	Ursula Mckenna
Date Deposited:	14 Oct 2025 06:59
Last Modified:	17 Apr 2026 10:30
URI:	https://lbro.repository.guildhe.ac.uk/id/eprint/1272

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