Abstract
Both grieving the loss of a loved one and using spirituality or religion as an aid in doing so are common behaviors in the wake of death. This longitudinal examination of 46 African American homicide survivors follows up on our earlier study that established the relation between positive and negative religious coping on the one hand and complicated grief (CG) on the other. In the current report, we broadened this focus to determine the relation between religious coping and other bereavement outcomes, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression, to establish whether religious coping more strongly predicted bereavement distress or vice versa. We also sought to determine if the predictive power of CG in terms of religious coping over time exceeded that of PTSD and depression. Our results suggested a link between negative religious coping (NRC) and all forms of bereavement distress, whereas no such link was found between positive religious coping (PRC) and bereavement outcomes in our final analyses. Significantly, only CG prospectively predicted high levels of spiritual struggle six months later. Clinical implications regarding spiritually sensitive interventions are noted.
Highlights
Background VariablesThis study examined routinely used background variables such as age, gender, education, annual income, relationship status, and time since loss (TSL)
We sought to examine the relation between psychological distress and positive- and negative religious coping to establish if psychological distress more strongly predicted religious coping or vice versa in a sample of 46 African American homicide survivors
We examined the relation between psychological distress and positive- and negative religious coping to establish if psychological distress more strongly predicted religious coping or vice versa in a sample of 46 African American homicide survivors
Summary
Studies by Bonnano and Mancini [2] and others have shown that major depressive disorder (MDD). Represents a common form of bereavement distress, and measures of depression have predominated in studies of adaptation in bereaved samples. Recent studies, using a variety of samples, show higher prevalence rates in vulnerable groups. These include samples of African American cancer caregivers, with CG rates of 22% [25], bereaved parents, with rates of 30% [26], victims of terrorism, with rates of 44%. With the homicide rate for African Americans at ten times that of Caucasians [31], these findings are concerning, and call for more research on how spiritually inclined individuals in that community adjust to violent death losses
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