The Relationship Between Spirituality, Religiosity & The Effects

People go through events such as natural disasters, assaults, loss of a family member or torture. All of these are examples of traumatic events. Traumatic events can occur at any time to a person and can happen multiple times. To have a chance at living a normal life after the experience, the person must develop a plan of treatment that will be beneficial for them. Religiosity and spirituality are often used as coping mechanisms, but it is unclear to if it positively or negatively effects the victim’s treatment progress. In this paper, literature on religiosity and spirituality are examined to clarify the effects it has on the victims. A correlational study will be conducted to examine the relationship between spirituality, religiosity and post traumatic symptoms among veterans who faced combat.

Religiosity or spirituality plays a significant role in the process of healing. With limited research provided, claims stating that religiosity has health implications, such as physical and mental health, must be analyzed carefully. McIntosh, Poulin, Silver and Holam (2011), explored the associations of being religious and spiritual in accordance to the participants physical and mental health after 9/11. McIntosh et al. (2011) stated clearly that religiosity and spirituality had different outcomes and were not associated together. Throughout the correlational study, spirituality and religiosity are defined as two separate definitions.

Religiosity was defined by the frequency a person attended religious services while spirituality was characterized by if the individual lived her/his life to their spiritual commitment. Religiosity and Spirituality were both measured using different scales. Over three thousand participated and slightly over 51% were female, all participants ranging from the ages 30-60. All the participants were adult around the ages of 60. Many of the participants disclosed their religion, Christianity being the majority and over 10% reported not to have a religious identity (McIntosh et al., 2011).

After gathering data before the event and after, results reported that religiosity led to fewer mental ailments and cognitive intrusions. Cognitive intrusions, which are components of the pain the person experiences such as anxiety, did not significantly improve even at a low level. Spiritual individuals experienced positive effects, but more cognitive intrusion. Even with a higher number of cognitive intrusions, the scores of them improved drastically (McIntosh et al., 2011).

The group of participants who coped religiously, had better outcomes mentally and physically. This suggest that frequent socializing and activities that are related to religion, acts like a protectant for developing physical and mental ailments (McIntosh et al., 2011). Future research will need to be replicated to determine and clarify the correlation indefinitely. Stratta et al. (2012), conducted a study to demonstrate how religiosity and spirituality effected the coping abilities of the people who experienced a severe earthquake in Italy.

For this article, Stratta et al. (2012) was unable to obtain information on the participants before the earthquake, however obtained information from participants not effected by the earthquake to create the comparison group. Researches defined religiosity to be an organized system of beliefs that people participate in, such as mass, practices and rituals. Spirituality was defined as the personal quest for answering personal questions and the meaning of the relationship between a higher identity. Both were measured using different scales and were accurate in gaining their spirituality or religious status (Stratta et al., 2012). One-thousand people participated in this study, just over half being female. Seven-hundred considered themselves to be Catholic and over 150 reported to be Agnostic or not religious.

After the surveys, there was no decline in the statistics of people keeping their religion, even after experiencing the traumatic event. All participants experienced post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, however the spiritual group experience no relief of the symptoms such as anxiety, depression, and mental health ailments. Not only did the spiritual participants not experience a difference in the symptoms over time, a small percentage of the participants considered themselves not to be spiritual anymore or use it as a coping method (Stratta et al., 2012). The data suggested that religiosity offered a strong structured environment for conformist to feel comfortable. In an event of a trauma like this, the structure could offer the person a sense of control, comfort and stability (Stratta et al., 2012).

Reinert, Campbell, Bandeen-Roche, Lee and Szanton (2015) only conducted a study to determine how positive religious coping methods affect the person or how negative religious coping affects the person. Due to having no definition or measure of spirituality, there is no clear distinguish between spirituality or religiosity. Positive religious coping signifies a good secure strong relationship with God, such as understanding or trying to understand why God contrived certain events. Negative religious coping methods include when the person will blame God, not have faith and have an insecure relationship (Reinert et al., 2015).

Researchers surveyed about 10,000 members of the Seventh-day Adventist churches in the United States and Canada. Members had experienced sexual, psychological and physical abuse when they were a child along with other traumatic events. After receiving the survey results from adults, aged around 60, suggested that positive religious coping led to positive outcomes such as posttraumatic stress growth and less symptoms of PTSD. This means negative religious coping methods is linked to a more negative effect on the person such as higher experiences of PTSD symptoms. Reinert et al. (2015) suggested that having positive religious coping methods allowed them to develop kindness and learn how to forgive. This article is very similar to Leaman and Gee’s article, (2011), along with Thomas and Savoy (2014).

For this review, Thomas and Savoy (2014) conducted a study measuring the religious coping methods and how the healing process has been influenced. As mentioned by Reinert et al. (2015), positive and negative religious coping methods are defined as mentioned above. After sending surveys out to multiple undergraduate students who suffered traumas like losing a loved one or experiencing an accident while a vehicle, the data adds credibility to the prediction and Reinert et al. (2015) study as well.

According to the data, results illustrated the participants who dealt with traumas showed PTG growth and less PTSD symptoms if they were to use positive coping methods in replacement of negative coping methods. Positive coping methods illustrated a strong correlation among the less-likelihood of the symptoms appearing and higher PTG rate. Replication studies should be produced and analyzed to strengthen the correlation (Thomas & Savoy. 2014). From analyzing that article along with Reinert et al. (2015), it emphasizes that positives religious coping methods seem to have a stronger and more positive influence due to allowing the participants to forgive and develop resiliency.

Leaman and Gee. (2011) and Cherry et al. (2014) analyzed the effects of positive religious coping, negative religious coping, non-organizational religiosity (private coping) and those who publicly associated themselves with the structured churches. Both study’s results supported their predictions and offer support for each-others. For Leaman and Gee (2011) study, they survey around 75 women and 50 men. These men and women both suffered extreme torture inflected upon them such as psychological, physical, sexual and sensory depravations.

There was a significant difference in the effect on the gender, especially when it came to measure the PTSD symptoms and the participant’s way of coping religiously. Women tended to experience the symptoms on a greater scale and publicly attended church more (Leaman & Gee, 2011). As mentioned previously, positive religious coping methods is when the person has a positive relationship with God, meaning the person will have faith and trust in God instead of blaming him (Cherry et al., 2014).

Positive coping behaviors were found to help the participants with relieving the symptoms of PTSD. There was also a strong correlation with those who did not practice with a structured organization. While the negative coping style was being used, and those who practiced religion out in public freely, there was no significant growth with their PTSD symptoms. This suggested that the participants who practiced in private felt more of a growth and better healing effect. This means refugees, more survivors of torture should explore these options and can practice privately while experiencing the good effects of coping positively (Leaman & Gee., 2011).

Cherry et al. (2014) discusses the same issues, except the traumatic events the participants faced were multiple hurricanes. They measured the coping styles, and whether the participants practiced positive or negative religious coping methods privately or with an established organization. After multiple surveys measuring their PTSD symptoms, and their religiosity, data shows the individuals who had positive religious coping methods and who were with established organizations or privately, they had a higher PTG and experienced less symptoms. On the other side, victims who practiced privately, and who had negative coping methods, experienced more PTSD symptoms (Cherry et al., 2014).

To conclude this review, it seems religiosity has some positive effect on victims who suffered from traumas. Spirituality seemed to have a positive effect, but not to extent of religiosity. Most importantly, 4 out of 6 articles illustrates how despite having the opportunity to distinguish between religiosity and spirituality, the researchers failed to do so. Looking at the research presented, many studies should be replicated along with more consistency among the participant’s faith and health. This leads to the need to compare spirituality and religiosity and need engage in experiments and to be consistent in measuring the spirituality and religiosity. To examine the relationship between spirituality, religiosity and PTSD symptoms among veterans, a correlational study will need to be conducted involving veterans who faced combat.

References:

1. Cherry, K. E., Sampson, L., Nezat, P. F., Cacamo, A., Marks, L. D., & Galea, S. (2015). Long-term psychological outcomes in older adults after disaster: Relationships to religiosity and social support. Aging & Mental Health, 19, 430-443. doi:10.1080/13607863.2014.941325
2. Leaman, S. C., & Gee, C. B. (2012). Religious coping and risk factors for psychological distress among African torture survivors. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 4, 457-465. doi:10.1037/a0026622
3. McIntosh, D. N., Poulin, M. J., Silver, R. C., & Holman, E. A. (2011). The distinct roles of spirituality and religiosity in physical and mental health after collective trauma: A national longitudinal study of responses to the 9/11 attacks. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 34, 497-507. doi:10.1007/s10865-011-9331-y
4. Reinert, K. G., Campbell, J. C., Bandeen-Roche, K., Lee, J. W., & Szanton, S. (2016). The role of religious involvement in the relationship between early trauma and health outcomes among adult survivors. Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma, 9, 231–241. doi: 10.1007/s40653-016-0113-0
5. Stratta, P., Capanna, C., Riccardi, I., Perugi, G., Toni, C., Dell'Osso, L., & Rossi, A. (2013). Spirituality and religiosity in the aftermath of a natural catastrophe in Italy. Journal of Religion and Health, 52, 1029-1037. doi:10.1007/s10943-012-9591-z
6. Thomas, E., & Savoy, S. (2014). Relationships between traumatic events, religious coping style, and posttraumatic outcomes. Traumatology: An International Journal, 20, 84-90. doi:10.1037/h0099380