Covid-19 Korkusu, Dini Başa Çıkma ve Ruh Sağlığı Arasındaki İlişki Üzerine Bir Araştırma

Abstract

It is known that some measures are applied at the individual and social level during the pandemic process, which is called a global trauma. Although these measures work to protect individuals from physical diseases, they are known to cause some mental health problems. Religion, as one of the coping tools used by people in the fight against psycho-social problems that emerged during the pandemic period, draws attention as a mechanism that people show more interest in, especially in times of crisis. In this aspect, religious coping comes to the fore as an important defense tool that people often resort to in the process of coping with stressful situations. In the Covid-19 process, the functional power of religion on people's mental health becomes even more important. As a matter of fact, the limited possibilities of combating the epidemic draws attention as an effective factor in turning to religion. When we look at the studies around "religious coping", it is seen that there are studies with mostly European-American centered participants/sample groups. In this context, it can be stated that there is a need for studies on different ethnic and religious groups during the pandemic process. As a matter of fact, religious coping can reveal different effects in individuals who follow different religions.
 This study aims to examine the associations between fear of Covid-19, religious coping, and mental health by using a data set coming from 402 participants who are 18 and older (%55.7 women; %44.3 man). After measuring fear of Covid-19, religious coping, depression, stress, and anxiety levels of the participants, we conducted Pearson correlation and regression analyses. As expected, significant relationships were found between the main variables of the study. The findings have indicated that (a) fear of Covid-19 is positively associated with negative religious coping, (b) fear of Covid-19 is entirely unrelated to positive religious coping, (c) positive religious coping is inversely associated with depression, stress, and anxiety, (d) negative religious coping is positively associated with depression, stress, and anxiety, and (e) positive religious coping buffers the deleterious effects of depression, stress, and anxiety.