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.     

Impact of Self Monitoring and Gender on Coping Strategies in Intimate Relationships Among Turkish University Students

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of self monitoring and gender on coping strategies in intimate relationships. The Self Monitoring Scale and Multidimensional Intimate Coping Questionnaire were given to 224 heterosexual Turkish undergraduate students. Results showed that high self monitors had higher scores on focusing on relationship, seeking external support, alcohol and drug use, self-bolstering, and humor coping than low self monitors. Females reported greater negative and passive coping, positive and active coping, self-bolstering, religious coping and seeking external support than males did. Males reported greater alcohol and drug use than females did. Consequently, this study showed that both self monitoring (high–low) and gender affect on coping strategies among Turkish undergraduate sample.     

The Adolescent Religious Coping Scale: Development,Validation, and Cross-Validation

Research literature on adolescent coping is growing, but typically such studies have ignored religious coping strategies and their potential impact on functioning. To address this lack, we developed the Adolescent Religious Coping Scale and used its seven subscales to examine the relationship between religious coping and emotional functioning. A cross-sectional research design was used with both a validation sample of Christian school students (Sample 1, N = 500, ages 12–19) and a cross-validation sample of Christian youth group attenders (Sample 2, N = 62, ages 11–18). Emotional functioning was assessed positively (life satisfaction) and negatively (hopelessness). Factor analyses supported factorial validity, and alpha levels supported reliability of the seven religious coping subscales (Positive God-Focused Coping, Seeking Religious Support, Constructive Distraction, Questioning, Avoidance, Denial, and Deferring). For both samples, religious coping was significantly related (unique variance) to religious support, parental support, and emotional functioning, respectively. In general, positive religious coping strategies were related to more support and better functioning, whereas the reverse was true for negative religious coping strategies. Moreover, many of these results were maintained even after controlling for variance due to age, gender, and religious attendance. As such, clinicians working with religious adolescents should consider encouraging these teens to optimize use of positive religious coping strategies and minimize reliance on negative ones as part of a holistic approach to handling stress. Religious coping findings are discussed regarding their comparison to general adolescent coping and with respect to future research directions.     

Dynamics of a stressful encounter: cognitive appraisal, coping, and encounter outcomes

Despite the importance that is attributed to coping as a factor in psychological and somatic health outcomes, little is known about actual coping processes, the variables that influence them, and their relation to the outcomes of the stressful encounters people experience in their day-to-day lives. This study uses an intraindividual analysis of the interrelations among primary appraisal (what was at stake in the encounter), secondary appraisal (coping options), eight forms of problem- and emotion-focused coping, and encounter outcomes in a sample of community-residing adults. Coping was strongly related to cognitive appraisal; the forms of coping that were used varied depending on what was at stake and the options for coping. Coping was also differentially related to satisfactory and unsatisfactory encounter outcomes. The findings clarify the functional relations among appraisal and coping variables and the outcomes of stressful encounters.     

Anxiety and Depression in Cancer Patients: The Association with Religiosity and Religious Coping

There is a lack of studies looking into religiosity and religious coping in cancer patient. In this cross-sectional study, we examined the religiosity using Duke University Religion Index, religious coping using Brief Religious Coping Scale, anxiety and depression based on Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale among 200 cancer patients. The association between religiosity and religious coping with anxiety and depression was studied. The findings showed that subjects with anxiety or depression used more negative religious coping and had lower non-organization religiosity. Hence, measurements in reducing negative religious coping and encouraging religious activities could help to reduce psychological distress in cancer patients.     

The Comparison of Death Anxiety,Obsession, and Depression Between Muslim Population with Positive and Negative Religious Coping

Death anxiety, obsession, and depression constitute three dimensions of death distress which can be influenced by religious coping in religious individuals. The aim of this study was to compare death anxiety, depression, and obsession between Muslims with positive and negative religious coping. In a cross-sectional study, a sample of 339 participants were selected via stratified random sampling method. The participants were screened using the Brief Religious Coping Scale, in which 60 individuals were identified to have positive religious coping and 62 individuals were recognized as individuals with negative religious coping. They responded to Death Anxiety Scale, Death Obsession Scale, and Death Depression Scale. The data were analyzed using factor analysis and multiple analysis of variance. The results of principal component analysis showed that death anxiety, death obsession, and death depression were separate factors of death distress. The results also revealed that individuals with negative religious coping gained higher scores than those with positive religious coping in all the three variables of death anxiety, obsession, and depression. Consistent with the previous studies and Terror Management Theory, this finding lays emphasis on the role of positive religious coping in reducing death distress and the possible consequent psychopathology.

     

Moderating Effects of Religious/Spiritual Coping in the Relation Between Perceived Stress and Psychological Well-Being

Although the relationship between stress and depressive symptoms is well documented, less is known about the role of coping strategies, in particular strategies for coping via religious or spiritual means. To investigate the relationships among these factors, data was collected with questionnaires completed by 127 MSW students at a northeastern university in 2003. Significant Stress×Religious/Spiritual Coping buffer interactions were found in the relationship between stress and depression. EQS 6.1 and hierarchical moderated regression analysis showed that religious/spiritual coping reduced the impact of stress on depression. Implications for practice are discussed.     

Coping Response Inventory: Assessing coping among Iranian college students and introductory development of an adapted Iranian Coping Response Inventory (CRI)

Coping is related to mental and physical health outcomes, but cultural and societal differences may influence its nature and structure. This study reports on the adaptation of the Coping Responses Inventory for Adult (CRI-A) to the Iranian social and cultural context. Study 1 was designed to obtain qualitative data and test the construct and discriminative validity of coping scales. Factor analysis of the CRI and Iranian items yielded seven factors: Religious Coping, Problem Solving, Cognitive Avoidance, Positive Reappraisal, Seeking Guidance and Support, Seeking Alternative Rewards, and Acceptance/Resignation. Internally, consistencies varied considerably from 0.92 to 0.53. All sub-scales from the Coping Responses Inventory for Adult (CRI-A) were resistant to social desirability biases with the exception of Religious Coping and Problem Solving. In Study 2, the replicability of the adapted CRI-A factorial structure and concurrent validity for the newly developed religious coping sub-scale was demonstrated. Given the importance of the role of religious coping in health and well-being outcomes, the expression and use of which may be substantially influenced by cultural practices and norms, it is recommended that future research pursues the validation of context-specific constructs of religious and spiritual coping.     

Differentiating religious coping from Islamic identification in patient and non-patient Pakistani Muslims

Pakistanis suffering from major medical problems and non-patient controls responded to two factors from the Psychological Measure of Islamic Religiousness that operationalised religious coping. Punishing Allah Reappraisal correlated positively with Poorer Psychological Functioning and External Control and negatively with Self-Adjustment. Factor analytic procedures demonstrated that the Islamic Positive Religious Coping and Identification subscale (IPRCIS) contained three dimensions. These Positive Islamic Coping, Islamic Identification, and Extra-Prayer Commitment factors displayed similar linkages with single-item measures of religious orientation and religious interest. Positive Islamic Coping also had noteworthy implications for understanding Muslim religious coping. These data most importantly demonstrated that the IPRCIS is a multidimensional construct, that Punishing Allah Reappraisal is maladaptive, and that the influences of beneficial Muslim forms of coping may be complex.     

Book Review

Previous efforts to demonstrate the coping benefits of Muslim beliefs have yielded ambiguous outcomes. With a sample of 200 Pakistani adults, this project used the Islamic Positive Religious Coping and Identification (IPRCI) subscale within the Psychological Measure of Islamic Religiousness (PMIR) to examine relationships with the experience and behaviour of Ramadan. Preliminary confirmatory factor analyses revealed a need to focus on a Positive Islamic Coping factor within the IPRCI. Positive Islamic Coping correlated directly with Positive Ramadan Experience and Ramadan Behaviour and inversely with Negative Ramadan Experience. Along with other PMIR variables assessing Muslim commitments more generally, Positive Islamic Coping helped mediate relationships between Ramadan Experience and Ramadan Behaviour. Punishing Allah Reappraisal from the PMIR displayed only minimal evidence that it recorded a maladaptive form of religious coping. These data confirmed Positive Islamic Coping as an operationalisation of adaptive Muslim coping and illustrated the importance of examining measures that are relevant within a religious tradition.     

Religious Coping and Psychological and Behavioral Adjustment After Hurricane Katrina

Positive and negative religious coping are related to positive and negative psychological adjustment, respectively. The current study examined the relation between religious coping and PTSD, major depression, quality of life, and substance use among residents residing in Mississippi at the time of Hurricane Katrina. Results indicated that negative religious coping was positively associated with major depression and poorer quality of life and positive religious coping was negatively associated with PTSD, depression, poorer quality of life, and increased alcohol use. These results suggest that mental health providers should be mindful of the role of religious coping after traumatic events such as natural disasters.     

Coping and social support and health related quality of life in women with breast cancer in Turkey

This study aims to investigate the role of social support and coping in explaining health related quality of life (HRQoL) among Turkish breast cancer patients. A cross-sectional sample of 188 women from three hospitals in Turkey completed the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, the Ways of Coping Inventory, and the Short Form 36 Health Survey. Socio-demographic and medical information was also collected. Results indicated high HRQoL levels, with 7 of the 10 SF-36 scores being within 1 SD of population mean. Correlations showed that helplessness coping was inversely associated with HRQoL whereas social support, religious coping, optimistic coping and problem focused coping were positively associated with HRQoL. Multiple regressions indicated that time since diagnosis, time since operation, stage of cancer, post-operative treatment, social support and problem solving coping were significant predictors of HRQoL accounting for 54.7% to 46.4% of the variance in physical and emotional HRQoL. Coping and social support have an independent effect on HRQoL over and above sociodemographic and medical variables and should be targeted by appropriate interventions.     

Loneliness, coping strategies and cognitive styles of the gifted rural adolescent

Loneliness, coping, and cognitive styles of 52 gifted adolescents from rural Nebraska were investigated via Woodward Loneliness and Kalyan-Masih Coping Inventories and Witkin's Group Embedded Figures Test. Fifty-one percent of the adolescents had a mean loneliness score above 2.60, which is the third highest among the 16 Nebraska groups studied. They were most lonely when rejected, alienated, isolated, and not in control of a situation. Most frequently, their coping strategies were: engaging in individual pursuits, extending social contacts, using cognitive reframing, and keeping busy. Less frequently, their strategies were: engaging in religious activities, seeking adult help, and using negative escape routes. The gifted adolescents were divided into field independent (FI) and field dependent (FD) according to their cognitive style. Some differences were noted. The FI adolescents were more lonely in a crowd, but the FD adolescents were more lonely when not with others. The FI adolescents engaged in individual pursuits and cognitive reframing, and the FD adolescents resorted to religious and physical activities or professional help as coping strategies. The FI adolescents showed more autonomy and self-reliance, while the FD adolescents relied more on external sources of support when coping with loneliness. Implications for counseling in home and school are discussed.     

Religious and Psychological Implications of Positive and Negative Religious Coping in Iran

This study examined the religious and psychological implications of religious coping in Iran. University students (N = 224) responded to the Brief Positive and Negative Religious Coping Scales along with measures of Religious Orientation, Integrative Self-Knowledge, Self-Control, Mindfulness, Self-Compassion, Self-Esteem, Guilt, Shame, and Self-Criticism. As in previous research elsewhere, Positive Religious Coping was stronger on average than Negative Religious Coping, and Positive and Negative Religious Coping predicted adjustment and maladjustment, respectively, In addition, this study demonstrated that direct relationships between Positive and Negative Religious Coping appeared to be reliable in Iran; that Positive Religious Copings was broadly compatible with, and Negative Religious Coping was largely irrelevant to, Iranian religious motivations; and that Negative Religious Coping obscured linkages of Positive Religious Coping with religious and psychological adjustment.     

Motivational predictors of coping with academic examination

The present study focused on the motivational predictors of coping with academic examination through the test of the contribution of self-determination for academic studies and achievement goals. Coping strategies, academic motivation and achievement goals were assessed among 199 undergraduate students. Regression analysis revealed that problem-focused coping is positively predicted by identified regulation and negatively by amotivation, whereas emotion-focused coping is positively predicted by introjected regulation and amotivation. Mastery approach goals contributed positively to problem-focused coping. Identified regulation and mastery approach goals made a unique positive contribution to problem-focused coping, and amotivation was negatively related. Students' coping actions may vary according to both the reasons why they engage in academic studies and the goals they pursue in this setting.     

Motivational pathways to alcohol use and abuse among Black and White adolescents

Using data from a biracial community sample of adolescents, the present study examined trajectories of alcohol use and abuse over a 15-year period, from adolescence into young adulthood, as well as the extent to which these trajectories were differentially predicted by coping and enhancement motives for alcohol use among the 2 groups. Coping and enhancement motivations (M. L. Cooper, 1994) refer to the strategic use of alcohol to regulate negative and positive emotions, respectively. Results showed that Black and White youth follow distinct alcohol trajectories from adolescence into young adulthood and that these trajectories are differentially rooted in the regulation of negative and positive emotions. Among Black drinkers, coping motives assessed in adolescence more strongly forecast differences in alcohol involvement into their early 30s, whereas enhancement motives more strongly forecast differences among White drinkers. Results of the present study suggest that different models may be needed to account for drinking behavior among Blacks and Whites and that different approaches may prove maximally effective in reducing heavy or problem drinking among the 2 groups.     

Personality disorders, depression, and coping styles in Argentinean bulimic patients

This study investigates the coping styles of bulimic patients with personality disorders (PDs) and the effects of the level of depression on the relations between PDs and coping. The sample consisted of 75 Argentinean bulimic outpatients engaged in treatment. Patients completed the SCID II (Structural Interview for DSM IV-Personality Disorders), COPE (Coping Inventory), and the SCL-90-R (Symptom Checklist-90-Revised). No differences in the coping styles of bulimic patients with or without a PD were found. However, when three specific PDs were considered-Avoidant, Obsessive-Compulsive, or Borderline PDs-clear differences in the coping styles of the bulimics were found. However, the differences disappeared when depression was controlled. Regarding the severity of the three specific PDs, coping styles were only found to be associated with the Avoidant PD. Depression showed to affect the relations between coping styles and two specific PDs-Avoidant and Borderline PDs-in bulimic patients.     

The effect of psychologists’ disclosure of personal religious background on prospective clients

The present study explored the relation of religious coping and spirituality to adjustment and psychological distress in urban early adolescents. The participants were 76 sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students attending Catholic day schools in the New York City area. They completed a set of self-report measures assessing religious coping, daily spiritual experiences, positive and negative affect, life satisfaction, and psychological distress. Correlational and regression analyses found positive religious coping and daily spiritual experiences to be associated with positive affect and life satisfaction, while negative religious coping was associated with negative affect and psychological distress. The relations generally were more robust among males, and their overall robustness decreased with age. Implications of the findings for research and clinical practice are offered to address the gap (compared to adults) in the literature on youth religious coping.     

Demographic factors as predictors of coping strategies among police officers

This study examined the effects of demographic factors on coping responses among police officers. A sample of 233 police officers completed the Ways of Coping Questionnaire (Folkman & Lazarus, 1988). The regression analysis showed that the higher the reported educational attainment, the more police officers reported coping which was emotion-focused and seeking social support. The rank of the officer was directly related to reported emotion-focused coping. These results are discussed relative to research on the relations of demographic factors and coping responses among police officers.