Spiritual Needs, Religious Coping and Mental Wellbeing: A Cross-Sectional Study among Migrants and Refugees in Germany

Abstract

It has been widely proven that resettlement is associated with negative psychological effects (e.g., increased depression and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder) among refugees. Therefore, there is an urgent need to improve the psychosocial functioning of migrants. This study assessed associations between negative dysfunctional appraisal (perceiving experiences as stressful), spiritual needs, religious coping and wellbeing. Data from paper-and-pencil questionnaires were collected from 744 refugees (69.8% male) aged 18–67 years (M = 27.99) with diverse backgrounds (including from Mashreq countries) who were resettled in Germany. Bootstrapping mediation analysis revealed that the relationship of dysfunctional appraisal and wellbeing among refugees is mediated by spiritual needs (i.e., existential and religious needs). Additionally, negative religious coping mediates the relationship between spiritual needs and wellbeing. The data obtained suggest the need for practitioners to focus on psychological interventions that strengthen spiritual needs in order to improve mental health among refugees.

“God was with me”: A qualitative study of Christian meaning‐making among refugees

“…Further, limited English proficiency, a lack of social support, and poverty are additional forms of adversity that make transitioning a challenge. This complex trauma in refugee and immigrant communities has been found to result in internalizing and externalizing symptoms (Beiser & Hou, 2016), posttraumatic stress symptoms (Ellis et al., 2008), depression (Maier et al., 2022), and poorer physical health (Correa‐Velez et al., 2015).…”

The effect of positive thinking on resilience and life satisfaction of older adults: a randomized controlled trial

“…Therefore, using positive training techniques to increase older adult's individuals’ resilience can act as a barrier to the physical and emotional weaknesses of older adults. Studies in Iran have evaluated the impact of positive thinking on older adults' mental health, psychological well-being, life expectancy, and loneliness 23 – 25 . However, these studies have not been able to directly investigate the impact of positive thinking on the improvement of resilience in this population.…”

Anger toward God and well-being in Ukrainian war refugees: the serial mediating influence of faith maturity and decisional forgiveness

“…The use of religion or spirituality to cope with crisis is a documented phenomenon among refugees (Adedoyin et al, 2016;Areba et al, 2018;Maier et al, 2022;Shaw et al, 2019). Pargament (1997), in his conceptualization, distinguished two types of such religious coping: positive and negative.…”

“…In other studies, frequent or prolonged anger at God has been linked to indicators of anxiety and maladaptation (Mickley et al, 2017) and to low self-esteem (Exline et al, 2011), depression (Wood et al, 2010) and anxiety (Yali et al, 2019). In addition, anger at God tends to co-occur with other spiritual struggles and thus can lead to decreased faith (Maier et al, 2022;Pargament et al, 1998). Given the adverse effects, it would be interesting to look for psychological and pedagogical mechanisms that can minimize the impact of anger toward God on individuals' health.…”

“…Most research to date has focused on the impact of negative religious coping on refugee impairment (Gladden, 2012;Maier et al, 2022;Shaw et al, 2019), with little attention paid to adaptive mechanisms. However, it appears that experiencing negative events can determine positive religious coping and consequently contribute to the development of friendly feelings toward God.…”