This study examined how religion is involved in achieving a sense of personal control in a situation that evokes feelings of distress and vulnerability. One hundred and fifty family members, waiting in the hospital while their relative underwent coronary artery bypass surgery, completed a survey about their methods of coping, event-specific outcomes, and adjustment (depression and anxiety). As predicted, religious methods of coping designed to achieve control predicted outcomes and adjustment beyond the effects of non-religious coping measures and traditional general measures of religiousness. A collaborative approach to religious coping, in which the individual shares the responsibility for coping with God, was particularly associated with better outcomes. However, the religious coping measures were also associated with higher self-reported levels of depression and anxiety. Exploratory path analyses suggested that anxiety and depression may be stressors in themselves, eliciting religious coping responses which, in turn, lead to specific outcomes. These findings underscore the practical and empirical value of a closer, more detailed analysis of the roles of religion in coping with uncontrollable life stressors.
The purposes of this study were (1) to describe both religious and nonreligious appraisals of caregiving for a terminally ill patient and (2) to explore the relationship between these appraisals with situational outcomes, mental health outcomes, and spiritual health outcomes in the caregivers. Ninety-two caregivers completed a questionnaire consisting of religious and nonreligious appraisals, general and religious outcomes, depression, anxiety, and purpose in life. Caregivers who appraised their situation as part of God's plan or as a means of gaining strength or understanding from God reported positive outcomes while caregivers who viewed their situation as unjust, as unfair punishment from God, or as desertion from God had low scores on mental and spiritual health outcomes. Religious appraisals made a significant and unique contribution to the prediction of situational outcomes and mental and spiritual health outcomes above and beyond the effects of nonreligious appraisals.
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