Predictors of hazardous drinking and internet gaming severity among a military sample

Researchers have placed a necessary focus on the mental health and substance use needs of U.S. military populations. In the present study, we examined a sequential regression model in which psychological, emotional, and spiritual factors predicted hazardous drinking and internet gaming severity in a national sample of 207 with military identities. Results indicated that posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, shame, and negative religious coping predicted hazardous alcohol use. Additionally, religious and spiritual struggles predicted higher internet gaming severity. Future research is needed to better contextualize combat era demographics and mental health risk and protective factors associated with alcohol use and internet gaming among military populations.     

Religious Service Attendance Aids Coping by Providing a Sense of Continuity: A Test of the Stress‐Support Matching Hypothesis Using Mental Health Outcome Measures

We propose that religious service attendance (RSA) serves as a coping resource by providing a sense of continuity. As a source of continuity, and per the stress‐support matching hypothesis, RSA should consistently buffer the negative mental well‐being impacts of stressors related to discontinuity—the disruption of regular routines and relationships. Most, but not all, of the relevant previous studies we reviewed found that RSA served as an effective buffer for the negative mental health impacts of discontinuity stressors (such as unemployment, terminated relationships, etc.). This variability in previous findings warranted a formal exploration of the relationship between RSA and specific stressors. To that end, we conducted a series of OLS regression path analyses on a sample of Americans age 40 and older (N = 2,579). RSA was found to consistently buffer the negative impact of discontinuity stressors on mental well‐being but failed to do so for other stressors. Overall, our observations are (a) consistent with the stress‐support matching hypothesis, (b) suggest that RSA is particularly effective for reducing the negative impacts of discontinuity stressors, and (c) found no instance in which RSA exacerbated (i.e., made more severe) the effects of life event stressors on mental well‐being.     

Spiritual Issues in Counseling: What Do Students Perceive They Are Being Taught?

Client religious and spiritual practices have recently emerged as beneficial to both mental and physical health. However, graduates of counseling programs indicate that they have not been adequately trained to address religious and spiritual issues with clients. This exploratory study focused on the perceptions of counselors‐in‐training regarding what messages they received about these issues during their training programs, as well as their potential behaviors when working with clients. Results indicated that potential behaviors are not always consistent with what they are taught. Implications for training and future research are discussed.     

Integrating Religious Resources Within a General Model of Stress and Coping: Long-Term Adjustment to Breast Cancer

The purpose of the present cross-sectional study was to explore the role of religious resources in long-term adjustment to breast cancer. A sample of fifty-two survivors was assessed on indices of religious resources (e.g., image of God), nonreligious resources (e.g., cognitive appraisal) and emotional and spiritual well-being. Results indicated that both relationship with God/God image and religious coping behaviour were related to the nonreligious mediator variables of cognitive appraisal and coping in response to the current cancer situation. Various experiences of relationship with God (e.g., Presence) were related to more positive appraisals of the current cancer situation as well as to the greater use of the nonreligious coping behaviour of focusing on the positive. In contrast, religious coping behaviours demonstrated more complex associations with cognitive appraisal and nonreligious coping factors. The same coping behaviour, for example religious avoidance, could be related to both positive and negative appraisals of the cancer situation. Finally, religious resources, but not nonreligious resources predicted emotional and spiritual well-being for these long-term breast cancer survivors.     

Attachment and spiritual coping in patients with chronic schizophrenia

Many studies on spirituality in psychosis have shown that, compared to a nonclinical population, patients make more use of spiritual beliefs/religious practices to deal with their problems. Our research question was to test whether attachment to spiritual figures could be a good explanation for religious coping strategies in patients with psychosis. First, adult attachment was investigated in 28 patients with chronic psychosis and 18 controls, using the Adult Attachment Interview. Diagnostic evaluations were performed with the Structured Clinical Interview for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th edition, Text Revision) Axis I disorders and symptomatic evaluation with the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale. Results also show a high prevalence of insecure avoidant attachment in patients, and suggest that a significant part of religious coping might be explained by the theory of attachment (64% of the patients, 78% of controls). The implications of these results are interpreted in light of correspondence and compensation hypotheses.     

Does Spousal Support Moderate the Association Between Perceived Racial Discrimination and Depressive Symptoms among African American Couples?

Social stress theory proposes that stress resulting from one's social position in society leads to fewer coping resources, and subsequently causes an increase in mental health problems. Guided by this framework, we investigated whether the relationship between perceived discrimination and depressive symptoms was moderated by spousal social support in a sample of 487 African American heterosexual couples. Using the actor‐partner interdependence model, findings suggested that female partner's perceived racial discrimination was predictive of her depressive symptomology irrespective of spousal support and male partner's perceived racial discrimination was predictive of depressive symptomology only among men with low levels of spousal support. No partner effects were present. The results demonstrate the need to examine variability in social stress and mental health outcomes for those in close relationships.     

The effects of coping primes on responses to messages about disease detection behaviors

Abstract

This study examined the influence of coping primes on responses to subsequent messages that encouraged the performance of health behaviors. It was hypothesized that the addition of a coping prime prior to a message encouraging a disease detection behavior would increase the likelihood that the message would be attended to and that persuasion would occur. To test this hypothesis participants were required to read a coping or neutral prime. Coping primes were statements that indicated that the upcoming message would present information about a behavior, and that this behavior would help them deal with a serious health threat. After reading the prime participants were presented with a message encouraging the performance of a health promotion or a disease detection behavior. The primary measures recorded were the participants' cognitive responses to the message, and their attitudes about the behavior. The results supported the hypothesis.     

A re-examination of religious fundamentalism: positive implications for coping

The majority of the research on religious fundamentalism explores its negative implications. Religious coping theory provides an opportunity to examine both positive and negative implications of fundamentalism. The present study incorporated various advanced methodologies utilised in the religious coping literature (mediation analyses, hierarchical regression procedures, and longitudinal design) to assess the relationship between religious fundamentalism and religious coping in 723 American college students. Religious fundamentalism was associated with a number of religious coping strategies that have positive implications and inversely related to religious coping with negative associations. Fundamentalism predicted religious coping over and above right-wing authoritarianism and religious orthodoxy. The religious coping methods mediated the relationship between religious fundamentalism and adjustment to stress both concurrently and over time. Limitations of the current study and suggestions for future research are offered.     

Toward a Psychology of Religion, Spirituality, Meaning-Search, and Aging: Past Research and a Practical Application

The current work is a combined review of several major theoretical issues in religious gerontology and of related research findings. It is intended to briefly inform, rather than to serve as a comprehensive review of the literature. The current author's primary goals are to put-forth points of information about contemporary terminology, to conceptualize motives for meaning-search at any age, to synthesize a few major findings and associated flaws in the research, and to describe a practical approach to the psychology of religion and spirituality (i.e., coping outcomes research). Within the current work, the reader is directed to sources of extensive reviews of data and of broader theoretical debates.     

Free will perceptions,religious coping,and other mental health outcomes in caregivers of individuals with dementia

Caring for a person with dementia often results in depression, anxiety, and reduced quality of life (QoL). Pinpointing beliefs and practices that reduce this distress is imperative. The current study tested the hypotheses that greater free will perceptions and religious coping would be associated with greater QoL and other mental health indicators in a sample of 107 dementia caregivers. The results of regression and content analyses supported the expectation that free will and religious coping would be associated with greater QoL. Relationships also emerged among free will perceptions, religious coping, anxiety, and depression. Clinical implications are discussed.     

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.     

Burden,Interdependence, Ethnicity,and Mental Health in Caregivers of Patients with Schizophrenia

Caring for a patient with schizophrenia often results in high levels of perceived burden and poorer overall mental health. Using a sample of 176 caregivers of patients with schizophrenia, the present study examined how two components of burden (objective and subjective) interacted with interdependence and ethnicity to influence relatives' overall mental health. In line with study hypotheses, and with the stress‐appraisal‐coping model developed by Lazurus and Folkman (1984), we found that subjective burden mediated the relationship between objective burden and mental health. In other words, subjective appraisals of caregiving appeared to partially underlie the association between the concrete costs of caregiving and psychological outcomes in schizophrenia caregivers. Also as hypothesized, we found that interdependence, or the perceived interconnectedness of individuals within a group, moderated the relationship between objective burden and subjective burden. In other words, when levels of interdependence were high, the objective components of burden appeared to have a weaker relationship with subjective burden. When interdependence was low, on the other hand, objective burden was more likely to be associated with subjective burden. This finding suggests that helping caregivers to value harmony and connection with others over individual self‐interests may reduce the likelihood that objective stressors (which are often inevitable in schizophrenia) will result in subjective distress. On the basis of prior research, we also tested several hypotheses regarding the role of ethnicity and its association with burden, interdependence, and mental health. However, contrary to expectations, no ethnic patterns were observed.