Can religious coping, religious involvement, spirituality, and social support predict trauma symptoms at six months after combat?
Year: 2011
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Numerous studies in the past 20 years have found significant correlations between religious coping, religious involvement, social support and post-traumatic stress symptom severity.Though the literature is robust regarding this correlation, the overwhelming majority of studies have relied on retrospective cross-sectional data.Therefore, conclusions regarding causality have been unsubstantiated.This longitudinal study explored social support, spirituality, and religious coping as potential protective factors against the development of post trauma stress symptoms and depression among soldiers exposed to combat.Two hypotheses were tested.First, it was hypothesized that measures of social support, religiosity, and spirituality would, alone or in combination, predict the development of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) related symptoms 6 months after deployment.Second, soldiers who scored lowest on social support prior to trauma exposure would be most likely to develop PTSD symptoms.A multiple Spirituality and PTSD iv regression methodology allowed for the assessment of the predictive capacity of each individually assessed factor.Soldiers who endorsed a negative religious coping style prior to combat were significantly more likely to endorse PTSD related symptoms.Soldiers who endorsed higher existential wellbeing prior to combat were significantly less likely to report depression symptoms post-combat.These findings suggest that providers should screen for religious coping styles and spiritual wellbeing among soldiers prior to deployment and after deployment and incorporate relevant spiritually integrated treatments into both prevention and early intervention strategies.Also, it further supports prior research regarding the need to foster social support following deployment among those who experience trauma.
Author: Justin Orton
Language: English
Subfield: Health
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W824498509