The Use of Spiritual-Focused Coping Among Working-Class Black Women

Abstract

This study explored the use of spiritual-focused coping as a way of managing stress among working-class Black women. It was hypothesized that Black women would use spiritual-focused coping as a first response to stress and that they would find it to be the most helpful in coping with stress. It was also hypothesized that there were additional factors, such as age, place of origin, household composition and number of children in the household that influenced the use of spiritual-focused coping and the level of stress among this population. A total of 119 respondents, from four different sites in New Jersey completed a four-part questionnaire that included a demographic portion, the African American Women's Stress Scale (AWSS), the Ways of Coping Scale (WOC), and an open-ended question. Results of this study highlight the importance of spiritual-focused coping as a form of coping that is used by working-class Black women to help them to manage stress.