Individuals’ religiosity and emotional coping in response to disasters

Abstract

Providing information to help individuals cope physically and psychologically with a disaster is critical in crisis communication. However, how individuals cope is relatively understudied. In particular, researchers have examined how people emotionally cope during different types of crises, but not in a natural disaster context and not religiosity. Yet, religiosity can be important during disasters, given that about 89% of adults in the United States believe in God (Pew Research Center, 2014). Through ten focus groups (N = 77) and a survey (N = 1,484), this study examines how residents of the Southeast United States cope in response to tornadoes. Findings indicate that participants experience anxiety and fear during a tornado, but fear and hope trigger physical action taking (e.g., sheltering in place or collecting supplies). Prayer during a tornado does not significantly predict action taking. Religiosity significantly predicts physical action taking.

Relational immunity? Examining relationship as crisis shield

“…Jin’s , Pang, and Cameron (2007) ICM introduced emotions into crisis research, with a focus on negative emotions like fear, anxiety, sadness and anger. This study suggests the need to consider positive emotions in a crisis, consistent with other recent research that has shown the importance of emotions like empathy and hope in moving publics towards action following a crisis (Lim et al., 2019; Smith et al., 2018). Furthermore, the ICM model has been considered an inward‐facing, rather than outward‐facing model, because it explains the ways individuals cope with a crisis (Jin et al., 2012).…”

“…Specifically, ICM suggests that conative behaviours are dominant, and that sadness and fright elicit cognitive coping behaviours, while anger and anxiety elicit conative coping strategies (Jin et al., 2012). More recent research has expanded the connection of coping behaviours to positive emotions, including the influence of empathy and hope on the tendency for publics to take action (Lim, Liu, Egnoto, & Roberts, 2019; Smith, Smith, & Knighton, 2018).…”

“People Will Continue to Suffer If the Virus Is Around”: A Qualitative Analysis of Sub-Saharan African Children’s Experiences during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Finally, prayer seems to be a strong coping strategy during times of crisis, and an effort should be made to allow for safe religious worship regardless of lockdown orders. Evidence shows that faith can greatly improve mental health outcomes and coping for those in situations like the COVID-19 pandemic [ 54 , 55 , 56 ]. Given the highly religious lives these children lead, it is important to convey religious messages of hope during manmade and natural disasters.…”

How Stakeholders React to Issues with Risk Implications: Extending a Relational Perspective of Issues Management

“…Specifically, anger, one fundamental emotion experienced when people perceive relatively high risks (Coombs & Holladay, 2005;Jin et al, 2012;Lim et al, 2019;Turner et al, 2006;Witte, 1992), is likely to amplify the positive relationship between perceived risks and NWOM intentions. Anger is a powerful behavioural motivator that makes an individual attend to and remove the offending agent (Lerner & Tiedens, 2006).…”