Abstract:Religious coping now represents a key variable of interest in research on health outcomes, not only because many individuals turn to their faith in times of illness, but also because studies have frequently found that religious coping is associated with desirable health outcomes. The purpose of this article is to familiarize readers with recent investigations of religious coping in samples with medical conditions. The present article will begin by describing a conceptual model of religious coping. The article will then provide data on the prevalence of religious coping in a range of samples. After presenting findings that illustrate the general relationship between religious coping and health outcomes, the article will review more specific pathways through which religious coping is thought to impact health. These pathways include shaping individuals' active coping with health problems, influencing patients' emotional responses to illness, fostering social support, and facilitating meaning making. This article will also address the darker side of religious coping, describing forms of coping that are linked to negative outcomes. Examples of religious coping interventions will also be reviewed. Finally, we will close with suggestions for future work in this important field of research.

Objectives The study replicated and extended previous findings by investigating relationships between positive and negative religious coping and psychological distress in minority older adults. Methods Older adults were evaluated during screening and baseline procedures of a psychotherapy clinical trial for late‐life worry and anxiety. Participants were age 50 years or older and recruited from low‐income and predominantly minority neighborhoods. Participants screening positive for worry (PSWQ‐A ≥ 23) with no significant cognitive impairment (Six‐Item Screener for cognitive impairment ≤2) completed a diagnostic interview and baseline assessments. Positive and negative religious coping were assessed with the positive and negative coping subscales of the Brief Religious Coping scale. Psychological distress was assessed with measures of depression, anxiety, and worry. A set of multiple linear regression models were used to evaluate the relationship between religious coping and each measure of psychological distress. Results Negative religious coping was associated with greater anxiety, worry, and depression. Positive and negative religious coping interacted such that positive religious coping buffered the effects of negative religious coping on anxiety and depression. Significant main effects and interactions remained after controlling for age, gender, race, years of education, and study. Conclusions The findings of this study are consistent with prior work showing that negative religious coping is associated with greater psychological distress. This study replicates previous findings that positive religious coping may buffer the harmful effects of negative religious coping and extends understandings of the specific psychological impacts that positive and negative religious coping may have on older, minority adults.

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Although psychotherapy is a value-laden undertaking, the ways in which therapists' values affect their work are not well understood. Religion and spirituality (R/S) are potentially powerful influences on therapy that need to be studied in greater depth. To summarize existing research and encourage additional work, the authors conducted a systematic review of studies examining the relations between psychotherapists' R/S and therapy attitudes and behaviors, the therapeutic relationship, and treatment outcomes. In addition to requesting article recommendations from authors who had published on this topic, the authors searched the PsycINFO and PubMed electronic databases for original, peer-reviewed journal articles describing quantitative studies of the associations between therapist R/S and variables of interest. A total of 29 articles met inclusion criteria and were reviewed. On the basis of the studies reviewed, therapist R/S is positively correlated with favorable attitudes toward integrating R/S into therapy and confidence in one's ability to do so. Relatively few studies addressed other topics; thus, the following conclusions are more tentative. There is some evidence that therapists high in R/S tend to hold conservative social values and not to be supportive of unconventional sexual behavior. Therapists appear to prefer clients who share their R/S beliefs and values. However, therapist R/S and