Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Mental Health, Religion, and Culture

Publication Date

2013

Keywords

spirituality, religion, coping, collective coping, cross-cultural coping, health, psychological distress

DOI

10.1080/13674676.2013.780015

Abstract

The present study sets out to examine the spirituality-coping-health link in a culturally and religiously diverse undergraduate sample (N = 301) in Canada. Specifically, this investigation: (a) assessed intrinsic spirituality with a factorially derived measure, created based on a multidimensional measure of spirituality; (b) tested the mediating role of coping in the spirituality-psychological well-being relation with a validated cross-cultural measure of coping; and (c) examined this complex, multivariate web of relationships with a path analysis. The results showed that Intrinsic Spirituality reduced Psychological Distress, promoted the use of Collective Coping, and reduced the use of Avoidance Coping. Furthermore, Engagement Coping reduced Psychological Distress while Avoidance Coping increased the distress. The findings suggest that one way in which spiritual faith and belief can act to improve individuals’psychological well-being is through promoting adaptive and culturally congruent/appropriate coping behaviours in the face of stressful situations. Implications and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Comments

This is an Author's Original Manuscript of an article whose final and definitive form, the Version of Record, has been published in the Mental Health Religion and Culture 2013 copyright Taylor & Francis, available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13674676.2013.780015

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