Religious coping in time of covid 19 in tunisia

Abstract

Introduction Religion belongs among well-documented coping strategies, through which one can understand and deal with stressors. Objectives The aim of this study was to examine religious coping responses face to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic among Tunisian people. Methods The survey was conducted using the online anonymous questionnaires and distributed through social networks from 24 April to 23 May 2020. It included sociodemographic questions, participants’ experience of SARS-CoV-2related stressful events and the frequency of religious practice during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Brief RCOPE was used to assess religious coping. Results Our study included 80 participants: 71.3%female and 42.5%married. The mean age of the participants was 29.30 years (SD = 8.72). The religion of all participants was Islam, and 72.5% of them had religious practices. Participants reported much lower levels of negative religious coping than positive religious coping (5% versus 37.5%). There were no significant differences in religious coping activities as a function of gender (p=0.180, p= 0.192). Significant relationships were found only for demographic variables: level of education with Higher-educated reported more PRC (p=0.002). Having a family member with a suspected or confirmed infection was correlated with PRC (p=0.016).Concern with becoming infected or having a friend with a suspected or confirmed infection did not correlate with any coping strategy (p=0.112; p=0.489). No correlation was found between religious commitment and religious coping (p=0.897; p=0.504) however increasing religious activity during this pandemic was correlated with PRC (p=0.013). Conclusions Our findings suggest that lockdown experience is associated with higher use of NRC strategies.