Perceived relationships with God can be a source of comfort or struggle. To advance the study of spiritual comfort and struggle, we develop the nine-item Attitudes toward God Scale (ATGS-9), and we describe six studies (2,992 total participants) reporting its development and psychometrics. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses identified two factors: (1) Positive Attitudes toward God and (2) Disappointment and Anger with God. Subscale scores showed good estimated internal consistency, 2-week temporal stability, and evidence for construct and discriminant validity. Positive Attitudes toward God correlated with measures of religiosity and conscientiousness. Disappointment and Anger with God correlated with negative religious coping, lower religious participation, more distress, higher neuroticism, and entitlement. These results support the ATGS-9 as a brief measure of attitudes toward God.

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The purpose of this systematic review is to synthesize the existing empirical psychology of religion/spirituality (R/S) and disaster research and offer a prospectus for future research. Method: Searches were conducted in PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, Medline databases, and through personal communication with study authors covering a period from 1975 (from the earliest identified study meeting our criteria) to 2015. Studies that took an empirical approach to studying the impact of disasters on R/S phenomena, as well as the relationship between R/S phenomena, cognition, behavior, and well-being in disaster contexts were included. Results: A total of 51 articles met the inclusion criteria. We organized the empirical findings under five main categories, which emerged from sorting studies by their primary R/S focus: (a) general religiousness, (b) God representations, (c) religious appraisals, (d) R/S meaning making, and (e) religious coping. On the whole, R/S appears to generally lead to positive outcomes among disaster survivors. Results suggest positive benefits of R/S comes more from how one engages faith and access to resources via R/S communities. Conclusions: This review revealed several emerging patterns regarding what is known as well as existing gaps in the literature, including the need for more rigorous methodological designs and ongoing systematic programs of study. Clinical Impact StatementOn the whole R/S generally lead to positive outcomes among disaster survivors. R/S appeared to serve as a positive resource for helping disaster survivors make sense of and cope with natural and human-made disasters. However, negative religious coping, as well as certain types of god representations, religious appraisals, and changes in religiosity over time were all associated with more negative mental, physical, and spiritual outcomes. Based on these findings, clinicians should give greater attention to exploring the role of R/S in the lives of disaster survivors as a potential resource for recovery. Clinicians should also be listening for ways that R/S may also hinder disaster resilience.

Restavek is a form of modern-day slavery that is estimated to affect 300,000 (i.e., approximately 1 in 10) children in Haiti. It typically involves a child from a poor rural family being sent to work as an indentured domestic servant for an affluent urban family. Restavek children experience a high rate of trauma, as well as other mental health concerns. The present study explored the effectiveness of a culturally adapted form of Spiritually Oriented Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (SO-TF-CBT), a treatment model for assessing and treating religious and spiritual issues within the standard TF-CBT protocol (an evidence-based treatment for childhood trauma). This study involved 20 control participants and 38 treatment participants assigned to a 12-session protocol. Results indicated that participants who received the treatment, relative to those who did not, reported lower PTSD symptoms and spiritual struggles (relative to control participants), with medium-to-large effect sizes. Implications of these findings for future research and clinical work with restavek children are discussed.

Stoltenberg and U. Delworth's (1987) integrative developmental model as a template. A set of conceptual guidelines for developing supervisee competence in regard to working with religious clients and issues is presented along with examples of supervisor or therapist actions for each domain.