Nalini Tarakeshwar

Religious coping methods as predictors of psychological, physical and spiritual outcomes among medically ill elderly patients: A two-year longitudinal study

A total of 268 medically ill, elderly, hospitalized patients responded to measures of religious coping and spiritual, psychological and physical functioning at baseline and follow-up two years later. After controlling for relevant variables, religious coping was significantly predictive of spiritual outcome, and changes in mental and physical health. Generally, positive methods of religious coping (e.g. seeking spiritual support, benevolent religious reappraisals) were associated with improvements in health. Negative methods of religious coping (e.g. punishing God reappraisal, interpersonal religious discontent) were predictive of declines in health. Patients who continue to struggle with religious issues over time may be particularly at risk for health-related problems.

Religious Coping Among the Religious: The Relationships Between Religious Coping and Well-Being in a National Sample of Presbyterian Clergy, Elders, and Members

This study examined whether the relationships between religious coping and well-being are moderated by the salience of religion to the individuals identity and social roles. As part of a national survey of Presbyterians, 1,260 clergy, 823 elders, and 735 members completed measures of demographic variables, global religiousness, life stressors, positive and negative religious coping, and well-being (positive affect, depressive affect, religious satisfaction). Our predictions were largely confirmed. First, clergy reported higher levels of positive religious coping than elders, who, in turn, indicated more positive religious coping than members. Second, positive and negative religious coping were associated with higher and lower levels of well-being respectively. Finally, positive and negative religious coping were more strongly related to well-being for clergy than for members. Furthermore, the drawbacks of negative religious coping for the clergy were not offset completely by the benefits of positive religious coping. Longitudinal studies of the longer term implications of positive and negative religious coping are clearly warranted. The results also suggest the need for supportive and educational services to help clergy draw on their religious coping resources and come to terms with their spiritual struggles.

Religious Coping in Families of Children with Autism

We assessed the role of religion in the coping of families of children with autism. Forty-five parents completed the Brief RCOPE; identified stressors of autism; and completed measures of psychological adjustment (depression and anxiety), stress-related growth, and religious outcome. A subsample (n = 21) of parents was interviewed about their use of religious coping. Religious coping accounted for unique variance in measures of adjustment. Positive religious coping was associated with better religious outcome (e.g., changes in closeness to God/church and spiritual growth) and greater stress-related growth, whereas negative religious coping was associated with greater depressive affect and lower religious outcome. Interviews identified other ways that religion affected the coping process of these families beyond those already established in existing measures. These results will be useful to professionals working with families of children with autism and in designing interventions to meet the needs of parents for whom religion plays an important role.

Religion: An Overlooked Dimension in Cross-Cultural Psychology

This article argues that religion should be fully integrated into cross-cultural research for four reasons: (a) religion, by itself, occupies a substantial role in peoples lives across different cultures; (b) religion has been found to be a strong predictor of important life domains among individuals all over the world; (c) religion has a strong influence on cross-cultural dimensions; and (d) culture also influences and shapes religious beliefs and practices. The authors present a five-dimensional framework of religion and provide recommendations on ways it can be integrated within cross-cultural research.This article argues that religion should be fully integrated into cross-cultural research for four reasons: (a) religion, by itself, occupies a substantial role in peoples lives across different cultures; (b) religion has been found to be a strong predictor of important life domains among individuals all over the world; (c) religion has a strong influence on cross-cultural dimensions; and (d) culture also influences and shapes religious beliefs and practices. The authors present a five-dimensional framework of religion and provide recommendations on ways it can be integrated within cross-cultural research.

Outcomes from a group intervention for coping with HIV/AIDS and childhood sexual abuse: reductions in traumatic stress.

Childhood sexual abuse is common among HIV-infected persons, though few empirically supported treatments addressing sexual abuse are available for men and women with HIV/AIDS. This study reports the outcome from a randomized controlled trial of a group intervention for coping with HIV and sexual abuse. A diverse sample of 202 HIV-positive men and women who were sexually abused as children was randomly assigned to one of three conditions: a 15-session HIV and trauma coping group intervention, a 15-session support group comparison condition, or a waitlist control (later randomly assigned to an intervention condition). Traumatic stress symptoms were assessed at baseline and post-intervention, with analysis conducted for the three-condition comparison followed by analysis of the two-condition comparison between the coping and support group interventions. Participants in the coping group intervention exhibited reductions in intrusive traumatic stress symptoms compared to the waitlist condition and in avoidant traumatic stress symptoms compared to the support group condition. No differences were found between the support group intervention and waitlist conditions. Tests of clinical significance documented the meaningfulness of change in symptoms.

Religion and HIV: a review of the literature and clinical implications

Despite substantive research documenting the connection between various religious dimensions and physical and mental health, surprisingly little attention has been given to the study of religion among individuals with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Although initially considered to be a white, “gay man’s” disease, today women and ethnic minorities are subgroups that are the most severely affected by the HIV pandemic. Importantly, these disenfranchised subgroups report greater use of religion in their everyday lives. A small but growing number of studies conducted mostly within the past few years have recognized the importance of religion in the lives of individuals with HIV. In particular, research has noted the frequent use of religious coping by men and women with HIV to deal with the loss of their loved ones to AIDS, to overcome their sense of guilt and shame in engaging in risky behaviors, and to find a renewed sense of purpose in life. However, clinical interventions with persons with HIV have largely neglected religiousness and spirituality as resources for treatment and, to date, few spirituality-based interventions exist that can be empirically evaluated. In this paper, we review the literature on religious coping among individuals with HIV and outline a clinical intervention that incorporates religious issues relevant to this population. We first provide an overview of religious coping.

The sanctification of nature and theological conservatism: A study of opposing religious correlates of environmentalism

We examined the association of two distinct religious forces, sanctification of nature and theological conservatism, with environmental beliefs (humans take precedence over the environment and human actions hurt nature), willingness to sacrifice personal funds for the environment, and behaviors (participation in green activities) among three samples - members, elders, and clergy affiliated with the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. Across all three samples, greater theologically conservative views were associated with lower care for the environment; conversely, a stronger belief in the sanctification of nature was associated with greater pro-environmental beliefs and willingness to invest personal funds in the environment. Sanctification of nature was also predictive of greater environmentally supportive behaviors among elders and clergy After controlling for demographic variables and theological conservatism, sanctification of nature accounted for unique, though modest, amounts of variance in environmental variables. Moderated regression analyses revealed only a few significant group differences. Specifically, greater belief in sanctification was associated with more pro-environment behavior among clergy than members. Also, theological conservatism had a greater negative effect on pro-environment behaviors of clergy than elders. These findings suggest that religious institutions have the potential to support or discourage care for the environment.

Development and implementation of a spiritual coping group intervention for adults living with HIV/AIDS: A pilot study

The aims of the current study were to (1) describe a spirituality-oriented, group pilot intervention for HIV-positive adults, and (2) examine the preliminary impact of the intervention among a sample (N = 13) of adults living with HIV in an urban city in northeast United States. The 8-session intervention, based on the cognitive theory of stress and coping and the framework of spiritual coping, addressed stressors unique to HIV disease. Changes in spiritual coping and mental health were evaluated using a within group pretest-posttest design. Results revealed that, at post-intervention, participants reported higher self-rated religiosity, more use of positive spiritual coping, lower use of negative spiritual coping, and lower depression. Studies using a randomized, controlled design with larger samples of individuals with HIV are needed to determine the efficacy of a spiritual intervention when compared to a secular one.

Initial Investigation of Jewish Early Adolescents’ Ethnic Identity, Stress, and Coping:

Ethnic identity was examined as a source of stress and as a coping resource among Jewish sixth through eighth graders (N = 75). Over 50% of the students reported having experienced various ethnic-related stressors in the past year (e.g., being restricted from activities due to the Sabbath, experiencing anti-Semitic comments). Jewish early adolescents also endorsed ethnic and religious coping strategies from three coping scale factors: Seeking God’s Direction/Support (e.g., “I ask God to forgive me for the things I did wrong”); Seeking Cultural/Social Support (e.g., “I look forward to the Sabbath”); and Spiritual Struggle (e.g., “I start to wonder whether God can really do everything”). Components of ethnic identity were related positively both to ethnic-related stressors and coping strategies, indicating that although high levels of ethnic identity might heighten Jewish adolescents’ sensitivity to ethnic-related stressors, ethnic identity might serve also as a resource for coping with those stressors.

Gender, ethnicity and spiritual coping among bereaved HIV-positive individuals

We examined the influence of gender and ethnicity on coping strategies of 252 bereaved, HIV-positive individuals (65.1% male; 71% ethnic minorities [African-American and Hispanic]). Factor analyses of the Ways of Coping Questionnaire and Coping with Illness Scale yielded five coping subscales: Active, Avoidant, Social Support, Self-destructive, and Spiritual. Multivariate analyses of covariance revealed significant gender and ethnic group effects on spiritual coping, after controlling for social support, education, and sexual orientation. Of all subscales, only spiritual coping was not influenced by perceived social support. Women and ethnic minorities reported greater use of spiritual coping while White men reported the least use of spiritual coping. White women reported significantly greater use of avoidant coping than White men. Further, the relationship between spiritual coping and grief varied across gender and ethnicity. These results highlight the influence of gender and ethnicity in the use of spiritual coping and the importance of integrating spirituality in psychosocial interventions.