The Association Between Strength of Religious Faith and Coping with Daily Stress

Recent research has examined the positive relationship between religious faith and both physical and mental health. The current study investigated the association between strength of religious faith and the ability to cope with daily stress over a 7-day period. The participants consisted of 68 students and 64 faculty or staff from a Catholic, liberal arts university. Measures included the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire, the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale, the Symptom Check List-90-Revised, the Weinberger Low Self Esteem Scale, and a 10-point daily stress, coping, and strength of faith scale. Results suggest that religious faith was not associated with coping with daily stress.     

The Relationship Between Aggression and Self-Esteem Among Prison Inmates

Although the concept of self-esteem (SE) has been extensively researched and analyzed as it has evolved in psychology, it has not been widely used among criminologists to predict aggressive behavior. The purpose of this pilot study was to examine the relationship between aggressive behavior and SE among prison inmates, and to examine whether inmates’ SE levels predicted different types of aggression. More specifically, 2 types of aggression were measured: physical active aggression (PAA) and physical passive aggression (PPA). It was found that inmates with lower SE had higher levels of physical passive but not physical active aggression than inmates with higher SE. These findings point to several implications for future research.     

Religious Coping and Quality of Life Among Severely Ill Lung Patients in a Secular Society

This survey study investigated the prevalence of religious beliefs and religious coping and possible associations between religious factors and quality of life (QoL) among a group of severely ill lung patients (lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) in Denmark (N = 111). Almost two thirds (64.8%) reported having some belief in God and/or a spiritual power. Patients who reported believing in God and patients who believed in God and a spiritual power reported better QoL than patients who reported that they believed in a spiritual power only. Religious coping was prevalent; for positive religious coping strategies, those used from least to most often, respectively, were invoked 15% to 37% of the time; for negative religious coping strategies the percentages were 3% to 16%. Negative religious coping was associated with lower QoL (β = ?0.320, p < .006), whereas no associations were found between positive religious coping and QoL. Results are discussed in relation to the cultural context of secularized societies like the Scandinavian countries.     

Post-Traumatic Stress and World Assumptions: The Effects of Religious Coping

Religiosity has been shown to moderate the negative effects of traumatic event experiences. The current study was deigned to examine the relationship between post-traumatic stress (PTS) following traumatic event exposure; world assumptions defined as basic cognitive schemas regarding the world; and self and religious coping conceptualized as drawing on religious beliefs and practices for understanding and dealing with life stressors. This study examined 777 Israeli undergraduate students who completed several questionnaires which sampled individual world assumptions and religious coping in addition to measuring PTS, as manifested by the PTSD check list. Results indicate that positive religious coping was significantly associated with more positive world assumptions, while negative religious coping was significantly associated with more negative world assumptions. Additionally, negative world assumptions were significantly associated with more avoidance symptoms, while reporting higher rates of traumatic event exposure was significantly associated with more hyper-arousal. These findings suggest that religious-related cognitive schemas directly affect world assumptions by creating protective shields that may prevent the negative effects of confronting an extreme negative experience.     

A Longitudinal Study of Coping Strategies and Quality of Life Among People with Multiple Sclerosis

The current study was designed to examine the role of coping strategies on quality of life (QOL) of people with multiple sclerosis (MS) over a period of 12 months. Respondents were 321 people with MS and 239 people from the general population who completed measures of QOL on two occasions, 12 months apart. People with MS also completed measures of how they coped with their illness. The results demonstrated that people with MS experienced lower levels of QOL at both points in time. For people with MS, QOL domains strongly predicted other QOL domains at both time 1 and time 2. The coping strategies of social support, focusing on the positive and wishful thinking were consistent predictors of physical QOL, psychological QOL, social QOL and environmental QOL. These findings indicate that coping strategies play an important role in predicting the QOL of people with MS.     

Multidimensional Locus of Control in Prison Inmates1

This study examined public offenders' generalized expectancies of control as they relate to length of time in prison and behavior within the institution, in order to demonstrate the usefulness of a multidimensional modification of Rotter's locus of control scale with a prison sample. Inmates (N= 145) serving sentences in a large, state prison responded to three locus of control scales designed to measure separately expectancies of internality, of control by powerful others, and of control by chance forces. It was reasoned that if the separation of control into these three orientations is meaningful, then changes in perceptions of control by powerful others should be particularly relevant to the prison experience. As predicted, scores on the Powerful Others scale were significantly related to length of time in prison and number of times punished by solitary confinement.     

Sexual and Aggressive Fantasies in Violent and Non-Violent Prison Inmates

It was hypothesized that violent inmates who refrain from disciplinary violations while in prison would express more fantasy aggression compared to violent inmates with discipline problems and to well disciplined, non-violent inmates. It was also hypothesized that sexual fantasies would be positively correlated with aggressive fantasies in the whole group. 65 inmates at a state prison, classified on the basis of criminal history and prison discipline, took a fantasy Questionnaire (FQ) and an Experimental TAT booklet (ETAT. The results did not support the first hypothesis, though the differences were in the predicted direction. The second hypothesis was fully supported.     

Sense of Divine Involvement and Sense of Meaning in Life: Religious Tradition as a Contingency

This study examines the association between sense of divine involvement and sense of meaning in life. Then it proceeds to assess how this association varies by religious tradition. Using a random and national sample from the 2007 Baylor Religion Survey, this study finds that sense of divine involvement is associated with greater odds of having a sense of meaning in life. In addition, religious affiliation modifies this association. Specifically, the positive association between sense of divine involvement and the odds of having a sense of meaning in life is observed only among evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants, and Catholics, but not among other religionists and religious nones. I discuss how the results make contributions to knowledge about the link between religious beliefs, religious tradition, and mental health.     

Work-Related Stress and Coping Strategies of Professional Women

Using data from interviews with professional women on their work-related stress and coping processes, the author identified those who were good and poor at coping.     

Attachment,Coping, Acculturative Stress,and Quality of Life Among Haitian Immigrants

This study investigated the relationship between attachment, coping, acculturative stress, and quality of life (QOL) in a sample of Haitian immigrants in the United States. Results indicated that an increase in years living in the United States and greater anxiety attachment were negatively associated with QOL and that higher levels of adaptive coping were associated with higher QOL and lower levels of acculturative stress. Implications for counseling and recommendations for future research are discussed.     

Quality of Life and Sense of Coherence in People with Arthritis

This study investigated the physical and psychological impact of arthritis on people's quality of life. A range of variables were examined in a sample of 375 participants who comprised three groups: people with arthritis receiving a support-based service from the Arthritis Foundation of Victoria, people with arthritis receiving standard treatment, and a group of people from the general population. The results revealed that the two arthritis groups reported a significantly higher level of functional impairment, pain, and negative affectivity, and lowered mood, positive affect, and Sense of Coherence, compared to the general population group. They also reported normal levels of importance, but lower levels of satisfaction on various life domains. After statistically controlling for pain however, group differences were eliminated on all variables except for functional impairment and for all satisfaction domains except health. These data are interpreted as evidence that the combination of low domain satisfaction coupled with high domain importance yields a negative psychological state. This, then suggests the possibility of a therapy based on reducing the perceived importance of health.     

Religious Care in Coping with Terrorism

Abstract

Spiritual care has taken an important role in the aftermath of 9/11. The shattering of numerous basic assumptions by this attack has created many spiritual and existential questions. In this article, we explore different aspects of spiritual care after major disasters and the different roles that clergy can fulfill. As the field of spiritual trauma care is in a rudimentary stage, best practices for spiritual care need to be developed. In the second part of the article, different elements of the training for spiritual caregivers are described. In order to assure appropriate caregiving, guidelines for training of clergy need to be developed.     

Religious Coping and Depression in Young Adulthood: Effects of Global Stress Exposure and Pre-Teenage Religious Service Attendance

This paper builds upon previous research on the association between religiosity and depressive symptomatology in young adults by focusing on the coping aspects of religious involvement (use of beliefs, comfort seeking, and prayer). Data come from a representative sample of Miami-Dade County, Florida, youths interviewed initially at around age 11 and then at age 19 to 21 (N = 1,210). OLS regression models demonstrate an inverted U-shaped curvilinear relationship between religious coping and depression which, in subgroup analyses, applies only to females, and specifically to those young women reporting above-average stress exposure who had attended religious services at least once a week during their middle school years. No association is found among those reporting lower stress exposure or less frequent pre-teenage service attendance. These results provide evidence that early religious exposure on a regular basis and high global stress exposure may be essential preconditions for a relationship at the aggregate level between current religious coping and depressive symptomatology in young adults.     

职业紧张与组织对策分析:LISREL建模

本研究以职业紧张的认知中介理论为出发点 ,分析了管理措施、个体控制感和职业紧张之间的相互关系 ,并在此基础上 ,运用 L isrel建模方法 ,提出了职业紧张的组织参与对策、目标设置对策和领导支持对策。     

The Relationship Between Religion and Religious Coping: Religious Coping as a Moderator Between Religion and Adjustment

This study examined the relationship between and among religion, religious coping, and positive/negative psychological adjustment and investigated whether the four religious coping styles of Self-Directing, Deferring, Collaborative, and Turning to Religion would significantly moderate the relationship between religion and psychological adjustment. Each of the four religious coping measures were significant moderators between religion and positive and negative adjustment. However, the high self-directing and high religion group showed opposite results from the other three coping styles, in that they were the most maladjusted and least satisfied with life compared to the other three integration and religious coping groups. The participants high on religion and high deferring, high collaborative, and high turning to religion groups were less maladjusted and more satisfied than the other three groups in each of these religious coping styles.     

The Effect of Religious Belief and Forgiveness on Coping with Diabetes

We aimed to investigate the relationship of religious beliefs and forgiveness in diabetic patients with various sociodemographic characteristics, emotional problems and glycaemic control. The study comprises 100 patients diagnosed with type 2 DM. We used a data collection form, the Scale of Forgiveness and Religiosity (SFR), Problem Areas in Diabetes Scale (PAID), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and the Audit of Diabetes-Dependent Quality of Life (ADDQoL). We also recorded blood glucose and HbA1c test results. A statistically significant relationship was determined only between the scores of the STAI-I and the religious belief scales (r = 0.198, p = 0.049). A statistically significant negative relationship was determined between the forgiveness scale points and the BDI (r = 0.326, p = 0.001), the STAI-II (r = 0.308, p = 0.002) and PAID (r = 0.313, p = 0.001) and a positive correlation with ADDQoL (r = 0.284, p = 0.004). To conclude, forgiveness by patient himself or others reduced the emotional problems which were experienced related to diabetes by reducing stress levels and could increase quality of life.     

The Impact of Religious Coping on the Acculturative Stress and Alcohol Use of Recent Latino Immigrants

Religion plays a prominent role in Latino culture and could be influential during difficult life transitions, such as those experienced during the immigration process. This study examines relations between religious coping, acculturative stress, and alcohol use in a sample of 415 recent Latino immigrants. Higher levels of acculturative stress were associated more positive and negative religious coping. Positive religious coping was related to lower alcohol use. Negative religious coping moderated the relationship between acculturative stress and alcohol use. Participants who used more negative religious coping had higher rates of alcohol use when experiencing high levels acculturative stress. Implications for culturally tailored prevention/interventions are discussed.     

The Coping Mechanisms and Strategies of Hypertension Patients in Ghana: The Role of Religious Faith,Beliefs and Practices

This qualitative study explored the role of religious faith, belief and practice systems in the coping mechanisms and strategies of essential hypertension patients in Accra, Ghana. Six participants were recruited for participation, of which five were Christians and one was a Muslim. Interviews were conducted and interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to analyze the data. Results showed that participants used their religious faith, beliefs and practices as coping resources. Participants used a deferring-collaborative style of religious coping, which seemed to have provided them with an avoidance strategy that protected the participants from conscious confrontation with their illness. Religious faith and beliefs also afforded the participants a sense of coherence that enabled the participants to manage their stress, reflect on their external and internal resources to promote effective coping and adaptive functioning in a health promoting manner. Implications of a deferring-collaborative style of religious coping and religious re-appraisal are discussed.