Red flags and religious coping: Identifying some religious warning signs among people in crisis1

Abstract

This study attempts to identify some of the signs of ineffective religious involvement in coping. Drawing from a process/integration model of efficacious coping, three broad types of religious warning signs were defined and 11 subscales were developed. These subscales were administered to a group of Roman Catholic church members and two groups of college undergraduates who had experienced different types of negative life events in the past two years. Statistical analyses were conducted to determine the relationship between these subscales and measures of general mental health and event specific outcome. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are considered.

Psychological Health and Meaning in Life: Stress, Social Support, and Religious Coping in Latina and Latino Immigrants

“…This finding is seemingly inconsistent with previous studies where social support (Edwards, 2004;Hovey, 2000b;Vinokur, Schul, & Caplan, 1987;Zimet et al, 1988) and religious coping (Harrison et al, 2001;Pargament, 1997;Pargament et al, 1998;Pargament et al, 2004;Tix & Frazier, 1998;Tix & Frazier, 2005) were related to indicators of psychological health. A recent meta-analysis of 49 studies on religious coping and psychological outcomes revealed small to medium effects between religious coping and psychological adjustment (Ano & Vanconcellas, 2005).…”

“…Religious coping refers to the use of religion in constructing appraisals, engaging in coping activities and processes, and shaping the coping process (Pargament, Zinnbauer, Scott, Butter, Zerowin, & Stanik, 1998). Religious coping may involve the use of cognitive or behavioral techniques related to religion or spirituality (Tix & Frazier, 1998).…”

Religiousness and depression: Evidence for a main effect and the moderating influence of stressful life events.

“…In this meta-analysis, only 31 (21%) of the studies assessed either extrinsic religious motivations or negative religious coping. Clearly, researchers should give increased emphasis to the negative forms of religiousness, particularly when investigating debilitating conditions such as depression (Pargament, Koenig, & Perez, 2000;Pargament, Zinnbauer, et al, 1998). A related finding concerning the measurement of religiousness is that this study only found one statistically significant difference between the several categories of measures of positive religiousness: Studies with measures of intrinsic religiousness had stronger negative correlations with symptoms of depression than studies with measures of religious attitudes and beliefs.…”

An Overview of Spiritually Oriented Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

“…, in another study, found that for almost all of the cases in which spiritual thoughts related to the symptoms of the clients were investigated, spirituality is seen as a protective resource, including as a coping mechanism against negative stress, and as symptoms worsen, behavioral and cognitive distancing from beliefs is also seen. Likewise, several studies have shown that spiritual thoughts and behaviors of clients may have supportive effects for solving their problems though sometimes they may have a worsening effect on existing problems or be the very cause of the problems (Braam, Klinkenberg, Galenkamp, & Deeg, 2012;Cole & Pargament, 1999;Pargament, Zinnbauer, Scott, Butter, Zerowin, & Stanik, 1998;Snodgrass, 2009;Weber & Cummings, 2003).…”