Do Religious Habits and Coping Help in the Immediate Aftermath of a Crisis? Relations With Hurricane Katrina Evacuees' Acute Stress Symptoms and Functional Impairment

• Published in: Psychological trauma 2019-09, Vol.11 (6), p.563-570
• Main Authors: Park, Crystal L., Sacco, Shane J., Mills, Mary Alice
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acute Stress Disorder; Adaptation, Psychological; Adult; African Americans - psychology; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Coping Behavior; Cyclonic Storms; Female; Habits; Health Impairments; Human; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Natural Disasters; Punishment - psychology; Religion and Psychology; Religious Beliefs; Stress Disorders, Traumatic, Acute - physiopathology; Stress Disorders, Traumatic, Acute - psychology; Survivors - psychology; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1942-9681; 1942-969X
• DOI: 10.1037/tra0000426

Objective: Religious coping has been shown to relate to psychological adjustment in survivors of disasters months or even years afterward. However, because very few studies have assessed coping and well-being during the immediate crisis, little is known about the role of religiousness at this critical time. Method: We studied a sample of 132 Hurricane Katrina evacuees (56% male, 74.2% African American, mean age of 43 years) relocated to a Red Cross emergency shelter in Austin, Texas, within 19 days of Hurricane Katrina's landfall. Results: Participants reported high levels of acute stress disorder (ASD) symptoms and functional impairment as well as high resource loss. Belief that God is in control and negative religious coping (perceiving punishment) were positively related to ASD symptoms while negative religious coping (perceiving abandonment) was related to higher functional impairment. The negative religious coping-ASD symptom relationship was moderated by resource loss, such that, for those with lower levels of resource loss, negative religious coping (perceiving punishment) related to even higher levels of ASD symptoms, an effect that diminished with higher resource loss. Neither positive religious coping nor pre-Katrina frequency of service attendance or private prayer related to ASD symptoms or functional impairment. Conclusions: At least in this sample at the height of disruption following a disaster, little evidence of salutary effects of religiousness were observed. It may be that such effects take time to emerge as people begin their recovery processes or that not all groups find help through their religious coping resources. Clinical Impact Statement For Hurricane Katrina survivors who had experienced high levels of loss and dislocation, neither religious habits nor religious coping were associated with less distress or functional impairment. However, some aspects of religiousness, particularly spiritual struggle and beliefs in God's control, were related to poorer adjustment. Interventions in the immediate aftermath of disasters might profitably focus on mobilizing other types of coping resources and address spiritual struggles.