Religious Coping in Traumatic Bereavement

Abstract

Traumatic bereavement as the result of homicide, suicide, or accident has been shown to be a risk factor for Complicated Grief (CG). Religious belief is often cited as a source of comfort during times of loss. This study examined whether traumatically bereaved individuals were more likely to engage in positive or negative religious coping, and whether religious coping style was associated with the severity of grief symptoms. To assess these questions, 42 traumatically and non-traumatically bereaved individuals completed the ICG and the RCOPE. It was found that the traumatically bereaved were significantly more likely to utilize positive religious coping strategies than negative religious coping strategies. However, when either group utilized negative religious coping strategies, this was strongly correlated with higher measures of grief severity.