Adversity, religious change and mental wellbeing

Abstract

The experience of severe trauma shatters everyday assumptions about the world and calls for the provision of meaning. Religious and spiritual (R/S) frameworks may facilitate such meaning-making (Park & Ai, 2006), reinterpretation of negative events through a sacred lens and provide resources for coping in the wake of adversity. Initially, religious/spiritual coping was divided into two categories: positive entailing support and meaning from God and negative reflecting questioning, doubt and conflict. The former was generally associated with enhanced mental health indices, while the latter may be detrimental to mental health and may result in diminishing faith (Pargament, 1997). However, in recent years, researchers have used the term “religious/spiritual struggles” in place of negative religious/spiritual coping to make it clearer that the latter form of coping does not necessarily have negative implications (see Pargament & Exline, 2022 for review). How are R/S feelings involved in responding to trauma? Many or all readers will be familiar with Allport’s (1950) classic study of World War II combat veterans, and few would argue with his suggestions that some survivors suffered a loss of faith, while others reported the development of a more mature faith. The papers in this Special Issue of Mental Health, Religion & Culture focus on religious/coping in the context of adverse, major life stressors, and the effects of religious/spiritual coping on measures of well-being and distress, including PTSD. PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder) has only relatively recently been identified as a result of trauma. The condition was formally recognised by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) in 1980 when PTSD was added to the anxiety disorders in the APA’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, DSM-III (American Psychiatric Association, 1980). Prior to this, a wide range of synonyms was used to identify the effects of trauma: shock, combat fatigue, complete exhaustion, shattered, traumatised. An online thesaurus offers 18 synonyms for PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder (https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/posttraumatic%20stress%20disorder). PTSD is notoriously persistent and disabling, is now recognised as a significant causal factor in suicide and substance abuse, and probably other disorders. It is usually characterised by intrusive thoughts and often sleep disturbance, and mood and behaviour disturbance. Religious devotees and professionals have struggled to identify and employ various religious/spiritual (R/S) coping strategies to deal with trauma (Pargament, 1997). Some of these feature in the articles in this special issue, as do some R/S outcomes. There are 12 articles which we organise roughly into three groups (with some overlaps): 1. R/S coping methods, 2. The effects of R/S coping on nonR/S factors, and 3. The effects of coping on R/S outcomes.