Religious and nonreligious coping methods among persons with RA

[Guest guest]

Arthritis Rheum. 2004 Feb 15;51(1):49-55.

Religious and nonreligious coping methods among persons with rheumatoid

arthritis.

VandeCreek L, Paget S, Horton R, Robbins L, Oettinger M, Tai K.

The HealthCare Chaplaincy, New York, New York.

OBJECTIVE: To examine religious and nonreligious coping methods among

persons with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). To identify positive and

negative religious coping methods and personal characteristics

associated with them. METHODS: Persons with RA (n = 181) completed a

religious coping questionnaire, 6 subscales from a nonreligious coping

inventory, and a depression scale. RESULTS: Religious and nonreligious

coping were moderately correlated. The scores of all positive religious

coping subscales were positively related to the importance persons

attributed to religion. Scores of all negative religious coping

subscales were positively associated with self-reported depressive

symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS: Correlations of religious and nonreligious coping methods

were neither completely independent of each other nor functionally

redundant, suggesting that each made unique contributions to coping with

RA. Persons with no (or few) depressive symptoms who reported that

religion was important to them tended to make positive use of their

religion as they coped with the emotional stress of RA. A significant

number of self-reported depressive symptoms were correlated with a

negative use of religion.

PMID: 14872455

I'll tell you where to go!

Mayo Clinic in Rochester

http://www.mayoclinic.org/rochester

s Hopkins Medicine

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org