Religious coping, stress, and depressive symptoms among adolescents: A prospective study.

Abstract

This study examined prospective associations between religious coping, stress, and depressive symptoms in a community sample of 111 adolescents (80 female). We hypothesized that religious coping would moderate the relationship between stress and depressive symptoms, with negative religious coping exacerbating the effects of stress on depressive symptoms and positive religious coping buffering the effects of stress on depressive symptoms. We further expected that the moderating effects of religious coping on outcomes would be strongest for youth with high personal religious commitment. Study hypotheses were tested in a prospective 12-week study. Youth selfreported their use of positive and negative religious coping strategies and personal religious commitment at baseline and then reported stressors and depressive symptoms weekly for eight weeks with an additional assessment at 12 weeks. Data were analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling. Results indicated that, as expected, negative religious coping significantly moderated the effects of stress on depressive symptoms across the 12-week study, with depressive symptoms being highest among youth with high stress exposure and high negative religious coping. The exacerbating effects of negative religious coping on the stress-depression relationship were strongest for youth with high personal religious commitment. Positive religious coping only marginally buffered the effects of stress on depressive symptoms. The results confirm and extend previous findings on the association between religious coping strategies and stress in predicting depressive symptoms.

Stress, Religious Coping and Wellbeing in Acculturating Muslims

“…Epidemiological studies indicate people frequently rely on religion to cope with life stresses, with meta-analyses demonstrating positive impacts of religious coping on wellbeing (Ano & Vasconcelles, 2005;Harrison, Koenig, Hays, Eme-Akwari, & Pargament, 2001). Additionally, a smaller number of studies has found religious coping to moderate the relationship between stress and wellbeing, providing support for the buffering hypothesis (Aydin, Fischer, & Frey, 2010;Carpenter, Laney, & Mezulis, 2012;Fernandez & Loukas, 2014;Tix & Frazier, 1998). These findings elucidate the two mechanisms by which coping can affect adaptation outcomes (Ensel & Lin, 1991).…”

Spiritual Coping at the End of Life

“…Subsequent studies have confirmed the association of positive coping with higher levels of reported well-being, including better quality of life and mental health in patients with advanced cancer. [23][24][25][26] Nine of 13 of Melissa's categories correspond to Pargament and colleagues' positive coping categories (Table 2). Negative coping methods were limited to 3 prayers: prayer 11 expressing loneliness, prayer 14 expressing shock and dismay at metastatic disease, and prayer 15 expressing concern with conflict with her boyfriend.…”

20201218

“…Epidemiological studies indicate people frequently rely on religion to cope with life stresses, with meta-analyses demonstrating positive impacts of religious coping on wellbeing (Ano & Vasconcelles, 2005;Harrison, Koenig, Hays, Eme-Akwari, & Pargament, 2001). Additionally, a smaller number of studies has found religious coping to moderate the relationship between stress and wellbeing, providing support for the buffering hypothesis (Aydin, Fischer, & Frey, 2010;Carpenter, Laney, & Mezulis, 2012;Fernandez & Loukas, 2014;Tix & Frazier, 1998). These findings elucidate the two mechanisms by which coping can affect adaptation outcomes (Ensel & Lin, 1991).…”