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Religion and coping with trauma

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One of the most common ways that people cope with trauma is through the comfort found in religious or spiritual practices.[1] Psychologists of religion have performed multiple studies to measure the positive and negative effects of this coping style.[2] Leading researchers have split religious coping into two categories: positive religious coping and negative religious coping. Individuals who use positive religious coping are likely to seek spiritual support and look for meaning in a traumatic situation. Negative religious coping (or Spiritual Struggles) expresses conflict, question, and doubt regarding issues of God and faith. The effects of religious coping are measured in many different circumstances, each with different outcomes. Some common experiences where people use religious coping are fear-inflicting events such as 9/11 or the holocaust, death and sickness, and near death experiences.

Styles of religious coping

Kenneth Pargament is the author of the book Psychology of Religion and Coping and a leading researcher in religious coping. Along with developing the “RCOPE” questionnaire to measure religious coping strategies,[3] Pargament and his colleagues designated three basic styles of coping with stress.[4] In Pargament’s article Religion and the Problem-Solving Process: Three Styles of Coping, he identifies the collaborative, self-directed, and deferring coping styles. The collaborative style of religious coping involves an active and internalized personal exchange with God. The deferring coping style is when individuals rely heavily on God and delegate their stress without taking personal responsibility for the situation. The self-directed style of religious coping emphasizes the free will given by God that allows for the individual to solve the problem on their own. The collaborative style of coping has been found to produce the most advantages in clinical settings.[5]

Specific traumatic events

September 11 Attacks

The September 11 attacks have been widely studied among psychologists. A national survey taken three months after the attacks showed that seventy-five percent of Americans turned to their religion or spirituality to cope.[6] Sixty-two percent of a sample of undergraduate and graduate students reported praying to cope with the stress that followed the attacks.[7] Further analysis showed that searching for spiritual meaning was associated with less anxiety and depression.[8] Psychologists also examined the types of coping used and how they affected mental health outcomes. Research shows that people who used positive religious coping displayed greater optimism, less anxiety, and higher levels of positive emotion three months after the attacks.[9] Individuals who used positive religious coping were found to have significantly more positive outcomes (closeness with God, relationships with family and friends) than those who used negative religious coping.[10] American Muslims were another highly studied group after the attacks. Results in this area align with previous research, showing that positive religious coping is associated with posttraumatic growth, while negative religious coping predicted higher levels of depression and anxiety.[11]

Death of a loved one

Individuals deal with the death of significant people in their lives in a variety of ways. One of the most common ways that Americans deal with the death of a loved one is by turning to religion. Although most psychologists would argue that religious coping leads to positive outcomes, some research identifies that coping using religious can lead to greater amounts of distress, especially in dealing with the loss of a family member due to homicide.[12] Further research recognized that the role of attachment to God is very important in determining how successful religious coping will be.[13] Research shows that secure attachment to God and a positive religious coping style is positively correlated with stress related growth, positive religious outcomes, and a developed sense of meaning. Anxious and avoidant attachments to God and negative religious coping styles were positively correlated with depression, traumatic distress, and separation distress. Furthermore, attachment to God was strongly more correlated to positive outcomes than attachment to others.[14]

Near death experiences

Near Death Experiences (NDEs) provide a unique opportunity for psychologists to study the way in which people cope with their own death. NDEs generally trigger an out-of-body experience into a realm populated with spiritual beings and have the potential to shape American attitudes toward death in general.[15] Surveys show that five percent of Americans have a NDE, which presents a limited field to study.[16] In general, people who have NDEs report positive outcomes including reduced anxiety, increased capacity to love, and a higher sense of meaning and purpose in life.[17] Individuals who have NDEs often fall into Pargament’s category of transformative coping. In these cases, the person is transformed into a whole new way of life and way of thinking by one supernatural experience.[18]

Religion vs. spirituality

Research in the psychology of religion often reveals different outcomes between religion and spirituality. A person’s religion is a collection of belief systems and moral values, often established by a governing institution. Religion is generally more traditional, organized, and sociological. Spirituality, on the other hand, is a measure of one’s intrinsic relationship with their God. Spirituality is viewed and studied as being more free-formed and psychological. In the psychology of coping with trauma, religion and spirituality can play very different roles. Some research shows that religion, but not spirituality can help with coping,[19] whereas other shows that intrinsic spirituality can be a very effective style of coping.[20] The differences found between religious and spiritual coping may be further evidence of the role of attachment styles and types of coping used.

References

  1. ^ Pargament, K. I. (1997). The psychology of religion and coping: Theory, research, practice. New York: Guilford Press.
  2. ^ Trevino, K. M., Pargament, K. I. (2007). Religious coping with terrorism and natural disaster. Southern Medical Journal, 100(9), 946-947.
  3. ^ Kenneth I. Pargament, Harold G. Koenig & Lisa M. Perez (2000). The many methods of religious coping: Development and initial validation of the RCOPE. Journal of Clinical Psychology, v56 n4, pp519-543. DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1097-4679(200004)56:4<519::AID-JCLP6>3.0.CO;2-1
  4. ^ Kenneth I. Pargament, Joseph Kennell, William Hathaway, Nancy Grevengoed, Jon Newman & Wendy Jones (1988). Religion and the problem-solving process: Three styles of coping. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, v27 n1, pp90-104. ISSN 0021-8294
  5. ^ Phillips III, R. E., Lynn, Q. K., Crossley, C. D., & Pargament, K. I. (2004). Self-Directing Religious Coping: A Deistic God, Abandoning God, or No God at All?. Journal For The Scientific Study Of Religion, 43(3), 409-418.
  6. ^ Schuster MA, Stein BD, Jaycox L, et al. (2001). A national survey of stress reactions after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. N Engl J Med, 345, 1507-1512.
  7. ^ Stein BD, Elliott MN, Jaycox LH, et al. (2004). A national longitudinal study of the psychological consequences of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks: reactions, impairment, and help-seeking.Psychiatry, 67,105-117.
  8. ^ Ai AL, Cascio T, Santangelo LK, et al. (2005). Hope, meaning, and growth following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. J Interpers Violence, 20, 523-548.
  9. ^ Ai AL, Tice TN, Peterson C, et al. (2005). Prayers, spiritual support, and positive attitudes in coping with the September 11 national crisis. J Pers, 73, 763-791.
  10. ^ Pargament KI, Ishler K, Dubow EF, et al. (1994). Methods of religious coping with the Gulf War: Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. J Sci Study Relig, 33, 347-361.
  11. ^ Abu-Raiya, H., Pargament, K. I., & Mahoney, A. (2010). Examining coping methods with stressful interpersonal events experienced by Muslims living in the United States following the 9/11 attacks.Psychology Of Religion And Spirituality, doi:10.1037/a0020034
  12. ^ Thompson, M. P., & Vardaman, P. J. (1997). The role of religion in coping with the loss of a family member to homicide. Journal For The Scientific Study Of Religion, 36(1), 44-51. doi:10.2307/1387881
  13. ^ Ungureanu, I., & Sandberg, J. G. (2010). “Broken together”: Spirituality and religion as coping strategies for couples dealing with the death of a child: A literature review with clinical implications. Contemporary Family Therapy: An International Journal, 32(3), 302-319. doi:10.1007/s10591-010-
  14. ^ Kelley, M. M. (2003, April). Bereavement and grief related to a significant death: A psychological and theological study of attachment styles and religious coping. Dissertation Abstracts International Section A, 63,
  15. ^ Kwilecki, S. (2004). Religion and Coping: A Contribution from Religious Studies. Journal For The Scientific Study Of Religion, 43(4), 477-489. doi:10.1111/j.1468-5906.2004.00250.x
  16. ^ Bailey, L. W. and J. Yates. (1996.) Introduction. In the near-death experience: A reader, edited by L. W. Bailey and J. Yates, pp. 1–23. New York: Routledge.
  17. ^ Atwater, P. M. H. (1994). Beyond the light: The mysteries and revelations of near-death experiences. New York: Avon Books.
  18. ^ Pargament, K. I. (1997). The psychology of religion and coping: Theory, research, practice. New York: Guilford Press.
  19. ^ Rees, Tomas. (2012). Religion, but not spirituality, helps protect against post-earthquake trauma. Epiphenom.
  20. ^ Vespa, A., Jacobsen, P. B., Spazzafumo, L., & Balducci, L. (2011). Evaluation of intrapsychic factors, coping styles, and spirituality of patients affected by tumors. Psycho-Oncology, 20(1), 5-11. doi:10.1002/pon.1719
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