Spirituality and well-being: the relationship between religious coping and recovery from sexual assault

Abstract

Despite a growing body of literature documenting beneficial outcomes of religious coping, there are virtually no studies examining sexual assault survivors' use of religious coping. To fill this gap in the literature, the current study examines predictors and outcomes of positive and negative religious coping among 100 sexual assault survivors who believed in God. Results suggested that African American survivors were more likely to use both forms of religious coping than survivors from other ethnicities. Yet, results also suggest that positive religious coping is related to higher levels of psychological well-being and lower levels of depression, whereas negative religious coping is related to higher levels of depression, regardless of ethnicity. The only outcome where ethnicity makes a difference is posttraumatic growth with a stronger relationship between positive religious coping and posttraumatic growth among Caucasian survivors space. The implications of these findings for research and practice are discussed.