Religious coping in the time of COVID-19 Pandemic in India and Nigeria: Finding of a cross-national community survey.

Huma Fatima,Oluwayemi Samson Akande,Olorunyomi Felix Olorunsogbon,Srinivasan Srinivasan,Tosin Philip Oyetunji,Krittika Sinha,Sujita Kumar Kar,Sudha Mishra

doi:10.1177/0020764020984511

Huma Fatima, Oluwayemi Samson Akande + Show 6 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1177/0020764020984511

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Abstract

Background:Religious and spiritual coping strategies is one of the possible tools that can be used to deal with stress and the negative consequences of life problems and illnesses. The study aims to assess religious coping in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic.Methodology:It was an online survey. The sample was collected using a snowball sampling technique as the data were collected through Google forms. The survey started on 22 April 2020 and was closed on 28 May 2020. The participants were from two countries, India and Nigeria. The inclusion criteria were age between 18 and 60 years, having completed at least 10 years of formal education, and have internet access. For data collection, Semi-structured proforma (demographic and personal characteristics) and Brief RCOPE was used to see the extent to which individuals engage in positive and negative forms of religious coping.Results:A total of 647 individuals (360 from Nigeria and 287 from India) participated in the survey. A total of 188 (65.5%) participants in India reported no change in their religious activities since they heard about COVID-19, while, 160 (44.4%) in Nigeria reported a decrease in religious activities. Positive religious coping in the Nigerian population was significantly higher than the Indian population. Similarly, negative religious coping was significantly higher (for most of the items in the brief RCOPE) in the Indian population than the Nigerian population.Conclusion:Significant percentages of people after the COVID-19 pandemic took religious coping steps to overcome their problems. During this pandemic, positive religious coping among the Indian and Nigerian communities is more prevalent than negative religious coping. There is a substantial cross-national difference between Indians and Nigerians in the religious coping modes.

Highlights

Religion is an integral part of human civilization
Individuals from low socioeconomic status with diabetes have higher positive religious coping compared to individuals from higher socio-economic status (Amadi et al, 2016). These findings indicate that religious coping is primarily influenced by several socio-demographic characteristics
399 (61.7%) from both countries, were male, which was higher among the Nigerian participants 225 (62.5%) compared to 174 (60.6%) in India (Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

Religion is an integral part of human civilization. It has a substantial impact on society and human behavior. Semi-structured proforma (demographic and personal characteristics) and Brief RCOPE was used to see the extent to which individuals engage in positive and negative forms of religious coping. Results: A total of 647 individuals (360 from Nigeria and 287 from India) participated in the survey. Positive religious coping in the Nigerian population was significantly higher than the Indian population. Negative religious coping was significantly higher (for most of the items in the brief RCOPE) in the Indian population than the Nigerian population. Conclusion: Significant percentages of people after the COVID-19 pandemic took religious coping steps to overcome their problems. During this pandemic, positive religious coping among the Indian and Nigerian communities is more prevalent than negative religious coping. There is a substantial cross-national difference between Indians and Nigerians in the religious coping modes

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