Do religious habits and coping help in the immediate aftermath of a crisis? Relations with Hurricane Katrina evacuees’ acute stress symptoms and functional impairment.

Abstract

Objective: Religious coping has been shown to relate to psychological adjustment in survivors of disasters months or even years afterward. However, because very few studies have assessed coping and well-being during the immediate crisis, little is known about the role of religiousness at this critical time. Method:We studied a sample of 132 Hurricane Katrina evacuees (56% male, 74.2% African American, mean age of 43 years) relocated to a Red Cross emergency shelter in Austin, Texas, within 19 days of Hurricane Katrina's landfall. Results: Participants reported high levels of acute stress disorder (ASD) symptoms and functional impairment as well as high resource loss. Belief that God is in control and negative religious coping (perceiving punishment) were positively related to ASD symptoms while negative religious coping (perceiving abandonment) was related to higher functional impairment. The negative religious coping-ASD symptom relationship was moderated by resource loss, such that, for those with lower levels of resource loss, negative religious coping (perceiving punishment) related to even higher levels of ASD symptoms, an effect that diminished with higher resource loss. Neither positive religious coping nor pre-Katrina frequency of service attendance or private prayer related to ASD symptoms or functional impairment. Conclusions: At least in this sample at the height of disruption following a disaster, little evidence of salutary effects of religiousness were observed. It may be that such effects take time to emerge as people begin their recovery processes or that not all groups find help through their religious coping resources. Clinical Impact StatementFor Hurricane Katrina survivors who had experienced high levels of loss and dislocation, neither religious habits nor religious coping were associated with less distress or functional impairment. However, some aspects of religiousness, particularly spiritual struggle and beliefs in God's control, were related to poorer adjustment. Interventions in the immediate aftermath of disasters might profitably focus on mobilizing other types of coping resources and address spiritual struggles.

(Non)Religious Coping with a Natural Disaster in a Rural U.S. Community

“…Contrary to hypotheses, positive religious coping and other dimensions of religious engagement (e.g. prayer, service attendance) were not significantly related to acute stress symptoms or functional impairment (Park et al, 2019). Further, among U.S.based college students with a variety of traumatic event exposure, including but not limited to natural disasters, negative religious coping appeared to be a barrier to posttraumatic growth (Thomas & Savoy, 2014).…”

Thriving during COVID-19: Predictors of psychological well-being and ways of coping

“…The findings are, however, not consistent. Other studies, for example with Hurricane Katrina survivors, showed no effect of religiosity on stress symptoms [39].…”

Fatores intervenientes na qualidade de vida docente durante a pandemia da COVID-19

“…Importante salientar que a espiritualidade foi abarcada ao binômio "saúde e doença" a partir da realização da Conferência Internacional sobre Cuidados Primários de Saúde, em 1978. Assim, tem-se a concepção que para uma pessoa ser e estar saudável ela necessita estar em harmonia com as suas dimensões física, social e mental, estando esta última vinculada à espiritualidade (Hott, 2020) o que para Park et al (2019) pode ser observada a longo prazo.…”

“…No contexto da pandemia da COVID-19, a espiritualidade/religiosidade, conforme terminologia combinada por alguns autores, quando utilizada de forma equilibrada, está associada a maior saúde, enfrentamento e melhor bem-estar psicológico (Tuason et al, 2021). Contudo, contrapondo este achado, estudo de campo desenvolvido nos Estados Unidos com evacuados do furacão Katrina, evidenciou que, a curto prazo, a religiosidade demonstrou poucos efeitos na redução de sintomas de transtornos de estresse agudo (Park et al, 2019), o que indica que em situações inesperadas, de grande impacto na vida das pessoas e quando se tem pouco controle, como é o caso da pandemia, os resultados da espiritualidade/religiosidade são subjetivos podendo divergir em diferentes grupos. Frente a estas contradições, infere-se que estudos mais aprofundados sobre a temática possam elucidar os efeitos da espiritualidade/religiosidade em tais situações.…”