Positive Religious Coping and Mental Health among Christians and Muslims in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Influence of Religiosity on Youths' Attitudes Towards People with Disabilities in the United Arab Emirates

This cross-sectional survey investigates the influence of youths' religiosity on their attitude towards people with disabilities. The Muslim religiosity questionnaire and multidimensional attitudes scale towards persons with disabilities were used to survey 733 youths from the federal university in the United Arab Emirates. The results indicated that the youths were religious and had positive attitudes towards people with disabilities. An increase in religiosity is associated with a positive attitude towards disability, and both religiosity and total family income positively impacted the attitude towards people with disabilities. Reducing inequalities by including persons with disabilities is one of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development objectives. Policies should aim to enhance curriculum, improvise public guidelines and partner with associated faith-based leaders to build an inclusive society for people with disabilities, thus helping to achieve sustainable development goals.

Investigating spiritual care perceptions and religious coping methods among the relatives of terminally ill patients during the COVID-19 pandemic: the case of Turkey

BACKGROUND

The COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey and around the world has had a profound impact on the families of terminally ill patients. In this challenging period, investigating the spiritual care perceptions and religious coping methods of patients' relatives is an essential step towards understanding the experiences in this process with the additional challenges brought by the pandemic and developing appropriate support services. This study aims to determine the spiritual care perceptions and the use of religious coping methods among the relatives of terminally ill patients in Turkey during the COVID-19 pandemic.

METHODS

The sample of this descriptive and correlational study consisted of the relatives of terminally ill patients (n = 147) who were receiving treatment in the Anesthesiology and Reanimation Intensive Care Unit of a state hospital in Turkey. Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale and the Religious Coping Scale to them using face-to-face interviews. Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis test, and Spearman's correlation analysis were used to analyze the data.

RESULTS

The mean age of the participants was 38.84 ± 11.19 years. Also, 63.3% of them were employed. The participant's total score on the Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale was 57.16 ± 6.41, and it was determined that the participants' level of perception of spirituality and spiritual care concepts was close to good. When the Religious Coping Scale scores of the participants were examined, it was found that both Positive Religious Coping levels (23.11 ± 2.34) and Negative Religious Coping levels (9.48 ± 1.47) were close to high. There was no correlation between the scores of RCOPE and SSCRS (p > 0.05).

CONCLUSION

As a result, it was determined that the level of perception of spirituality and spiritual care concepts of the relatives of terminally ill patients during the COVID-19 pandemic was close to sound, and their Positive Religious Coping levels were high. Epidemics are a reality of the world, and it is essential to learn lessons from this process and take precautions for the future. We offer a perspective to realize the coping power of religion and spirituality, which are integral parts of life. The needs of terminally ill patients' relatives, a sensitive group, become visible.

Understanding lived experiences and perceptions of resilience in black and South Asian Muslim children living in East London: a qualitative study protocol

INTRODUCTION

It is important to promote resilience in preadolescence; however, there is limited research on children's understandings and experiences of resilience. Quantitative approaches may not capture dynamic and context-specific aspects of resilience. Resilience research has historically focused on white, middle-class Western adults and adolescents, creating an evidence gap regarding diverse experiences of resilience in middle childhood which could inform interventions. East London's Muslim community represents a diverse, growing population. Despite being disproportionately affected by deprivation and racial and cultural discrimination, this population is under-represented in resilience research. Using participatory and arts-based methods, this study aims to explore lived experiences and perceptions of resilience in black and South Asian Muslim children living in East London.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS

We propose a qualitative study, grounded in embodied inquiry, consisting of a participatory workshop with 6-12 children and their parents/carers to explore lived experiences and perceptions of resilience. Participants will be identified and recruited from community settings in East London. Eligible participants will be English-speaking Muslims who identify as being black or South Asian, have a child aged 8-12 years and live in East London. The workshop (approx. 3.5 hours) will take place at an Islamic community centre and will include body mapping with children and a focus group discussion with parents/carers to explore resilience perspectives and meanings. Participants will also complete a demographic survey. Workshop audio recordings will be transcribed verbatim and body maps and other paper-based activities will be photographed. Data will be analysed using systematic visuo-textual analysis which affords equal importance to visual and textual data.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION

The Queen Mary Ethics of Research Committee at Queen Mary University of London has approved this study (approval date: 9 October 2023; ref: QME23.0042). The researchers plan to publish the results in peer-reviewed journals and present findings at academic conferences.

"God is in Control": Religious Coping in Sermons About the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Reformed Church in Zambia

Coping is one of the mechanisms employed by people to deal with crises or disasters such as the global COVID-19 pandemic. The RCOPE, developed by Kenneth Pargament et al., is a quantitative scale to measure styles of religious coping. This article applies the RCOPE qualitatively to live-streamed sermons in the Reformed Church in Zambia, held in the two-month lockdown period in Zambia from the end of March to the end of May 2020. A total of 20 pastors contributed 134 sermons that were transcribed and analyzed using the full RCOPE. The results show that pastors in the RCZ mainly encourage their audiences to seek spiritual support, gain control over the situation, and give a positive meaning to the pandemic. The idea that God is in control is important behind all of these means of religious coping in the Zambian sermons. This qualitative analysis also discovered possible lacunae in the RCOPE questionnaire, especially concerning its applicability to evangelical forms of global Christianity, such as the lack of attention to God's intervention and control.

Religious coping, care burden and psychological distress among informal caregivers of COVID-19 patients: Results of a cross-sectional survey in Pakistan

BACKGROUND

There is a complex relationship between health and religiosity. People may use religion to cope with difficulties and uncertainties in their life - such as induced by the COVID-19 pandemic.

AIMS

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between religious coping, care burden and psychological distress among caregivers during COVID-19 in Pakistan.

METHOD

We conducted a cross-sectional survey in Pakistan. We used the Religious Coping Scale (RCOPE), Care Burden Scale (CB), and Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21) to measure psychological stress from 303 caregivers. Data were analyzed using a hierarchical linear regression model for each of the three outcome variables, which are depression, anxiety, and stress. This analysis allows to investigate whether adding variables significantly improves a model's ability to predict the criterion variable.

RESULTS

The findings reveal that emotional care burden, physical care burden, negative religious coping, and social care burden explain a significant amount of the variance of three components of psychological distress among caregivers.

CONCLUSIONS

Health experts, psychologists, and policymakers can make better strategies to combat pandemics like COVID-19 by incorporating religious coping methods.

Investigating the Psychological, Social, Cultural, and Religious Predictors of COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake Intention in Digital Age: A Media Dependency Theory Perspective

Media exposure to health communication contents related to the COVID-19 pandemic alone is inadequate to measure the influence of media on individuals in adopting precautionary behaviors against COVID-19, such as vaccine uptake. Certain individuals may pay attention to and be influenced by communication content. However, literature has suggested other instrumental determinants in developing and adopting health precautionary measures, such as culture or religion, especially regarding vaccination. In times of crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, it is valuable to examine the interrelationships among psychological, sociocultural, and informational factors. This can provide valuable insights for policymakers in developing effective communication strategies. Drawing an analogy between the Media dependency theory (MDT) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) model, this study unravels the factors underpinning the COVID-19 vaccine uptake intention among Pakistanis. The study utilized a cross-sectional research design and employed a survey method to gather data from a sample of 993 participants. The findings obtained from the PLS-SEM analysis confirmed that individuals relied on both traditional and social media to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings show that individuals rely more on the informational content disseminated through conventional media channels. The findings also suggest that individuals from Asian countries, such as Pakistan, tend to be more inclined toward collectivism. The findings about the moderating role of religiosity suggest that religious beliefs significantly shape individuals' reliance on traditional media. Hence, this study has uniquely contributed to public health and media management by providing a strategy for managers to address disseminating misinformation related to religion and its impact on vaccination-related health issues. The study has theoretically confirmed the principles of media dependency theory. As a result, it is recommended that various information sources be utilized to cultivate resilience among individuals to manage health crises effectively.

Death Anxiety Among Pakistani HCWs: The Role of COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance and Positive Religious Coping Strategy

Background: The mental health of healthcare workers (HCWs) has been significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. To address this, spirituality and religious coping mechanisms have been suggested as a way to maintain well-being and reduce anxiety levels. Additionally, vaccination has been shown to play an essential role in lowering anxiety levels, including death anxiety. However, there is a lack of evidence on how positive religious coping strategies and COVID-19 immunization affect death anxiety levels. To fill this gap, this study uses a Pakistani HCWs sample. Methods: This study collected cross-sectional data from 389 HCWs on socio-demographics, positive religious coping strategies, vaccine acceptance, and death anxiety. Hypothesis testing was done using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and Partial Least Squares (PLS) by adopting the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique. Results: The results showed that the positive religious coping strategy and acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine reduced death anxiety among HCWs in Pakistan. HCWs practicing the positive religious coping strategy and vaccine acceptance had lower levels of death anxiety symptoms. Thus, the positive religious coping strategy has a direct effect on reducing death anxiety. Conclusion: In conclusion, COVID-19 immunization positively affects individual mental health by reducing death anxiety. Vaccines protect individuals from COVID-19 infection, providing a sense of security that reduces the chance of death anxiety among HCWs attending to COVID-19 patients.

Religiosity, Mental Health and Substance Use among Black and Hispanic Adults during the First Six Months of the COVID-19 Pandemic in New York City

The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between personal religiosity, mental health, and substance use outcomes among Black and Hispanic adults during the first six months of the COVID-19 outbreak in New York City (NYC). Phone interviews were conducted with 441 adults to obtain information on all variables. Participants self-reported race/ethnicity as Black/African American (n = 108) or Hispanic (n = 333). Logistic regression were used to examine associations between religiosity, mental health, and substance use. There was a significant inverse association of religiosity and substance use. Religious people had a lower prevalence of drinking alcohol (49.0%) compared to non-religious people (67.1%). Religious people also had substantially lower prevalence of cannabis or other drug use (9.1%) in comparison to non-religious people (31%). After adjusting for age, sex, race/ethnicity, and household income, the association of religiosity with alcohol use and with cannabis/other drug use remained statistically significant. Despite restricted access to in-person religious activities and congregational supports, the findings suggest that religiosity itself may be helpful from a public health perspective, independent of serving as a conduit for other social services.

COVID-19 Stress, Religious Affiliation, and Mental Health Outcomes Among Adolescents

PURPOSE

To examine the relationship between religious affiliation, stressors due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and mental health challenges in a representative sample of adolescents.

METHODS

The sample was composed of 71,001 Utah adolescents who participated in a survey by the Utah Department of Health in 2021. Data are representative of all Utah adolescents in grades 6, 8, 10, and 12. Bootstrapped mediation was used to test indirect effects of religious affiliation on mental health challenges through COVID-19 stressors.

RESULTS

Religious affiliation was related to significantly lower rates of teen mental health challenges as measured by suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts, and depression. For religiously affiliated adolescents, the rate of considering and attempting suicide was nearly half of that of unaffiliated adolescents. In mediation analyses, affiliation was indirectly related to mental health challenges (suicide ideation, suicide attempt, and depression) through stressors from COVID-19, including affiliated adolescents experiencing the following: less anxiety, fewer family fights, fewer school difficulties, and fewer skipped meals. However, affiliation was positively related to becoming sick with COVID-19 (or having COVID-19 symptoms), which was related to more suicidal thoughts.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings suggest that adolescent religious affiliation may be a promotive factor that decreases mental health challenges through a reduction in COVID-19-related stressors, except religious individuals may be more likely to become sick. To increase positive mental health outcomes among adolescents during pandemic times, consistent and clear policies that facilitate religious connections that also align with good physical health measures will be critical.

Relationship Between Attachment and Fear of Death: The Mediating Role of Religious Coping

In this research, the link between attachment, religious coping, and fear of death were examined in a sample of 224 Turkish Muslim adults. Data were gathered by Experiences in Close Relationship Scale, Religious Coping Scale, and Multidimensional Mortality Awareness Measure. Positive religious coping was adversely related to avoidant and anxious attachments. When compared to anxious attachment, which was positively related to both negative religious coping and fear of death, avoidant attachment was not correlated with any of these variables. Fear of death correlated positively with negative religious coping. Furthermore, the link between anxious attachment and fear of death was partially mediated by negative religious coping. Findings imply that negative religious coping is important in the relationship between fear of death and anxious attachment.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Members of the Saudi Community: Perceptions and Expectations From the Pandemic

Background and purpose Community individuals and sectors worldwide, including health, security, economy, education, and occupation, are being challenged to confront the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The deadly virus originated in Wuhan city in China and spread globally to other countries on account of its rapid mode of transmission. Solidarity and cooperation were vital elements in mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic all around the globe. Actions of solidarity among countries included gathering the world's leading experts to discuss the latest research and innovation while working to promote knowledge and empowerment across the communities. The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on different aspects of the Saudi community, including health, education, finance, lifestyle, and others. We also wanted to identify the perceptions of the general Saudi population regarding the impact of the pandemic and its long-term effects. Methodology This cross-sectional study was conducted from March 2020 to February 2021 among individuals across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The online self-developed survey was disseminated to thousands of individuals in the Saudi community and yielded 920 responses. Results Roughly 49% of the studied participants postponed their dental and cosmetic center appointments, and 31% reported delayed periodic health appointments in hospitals and primary healthcare centers. Around 64% reported missing hearing "Tarawih/Qiyam" Islamic prayers. Furthermore, 38% of the study respondents reported being anxious and stressed, 23% reported having sleeping disorders, and 16% wanted to be isolated from the community. On the other hand, the COVID-19 pandemic helped approximately 65% of the studied participants to abstain from ordering from restaurants and cafes. Additionally, 63% of them reported gaining new skills or behaviors during the pandemic. Many participants (54%) thought that after the curfew recession, they will face financial challenges while 44% assumed that life will not return to what it used to be. Conclusion The COVID-19 pandemic has had a multidimensional impact on Saudi society, which has affected both individuals and the community as a whole. Some of the short-term perceived impacts involved interruption in the provision of health care, poor mental well-being, financial hardship, challenges related to homeschooling and working from home, and the inability to fulfill spiritual needs. On the bright side, community individuals demonstrated the ability to learn and develop during the pandemic by striving to acquire knowledge and new skills.

Turning to Religion During COVID-19 (Part II): A Systematic Review, Meta-analysis and Meta-regression of Studies on the Relationship between Religious Coping and Mental Health throughout COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic and the many associated socio-economic changes constitute a stressful event that required adaptation to new, dynamic, and often threatening conditions. According to the literature, coping strategies are one of the factors that determine a person's degree of adaptation to stressful situations. A systematic review and meta-analysis was performed on the relationship between religious coping and selected indicators of mental health. Due to the large amount of data, this work has been divided into two parts: Part I discussed the positive mental health indicators (Pankowski & Wytrychiewicz-Pankowska, 2023), while this Part II discusses negative mental health indicators. A systematic review of the databases of Science Direct, EBSCO, Cochrane, PubMed, and Google Scholar identified 33 articles related to the severity of depressive symptoms: 30 to anxiety, 23 to stress, 1 related to PTSD symptoms and peritraumatic stress, and 5 related to general negative mental health. The limitations of the research as well as further directions for exploration are discussed.Clinical trial registration This Review was pre-registered at OSF: osf.io/54ygr ( https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/GMNFV ).

Turning to Religion During COVID-19 (Part I): A Systematic Review, Meta-analysis and Meta-regression of Studies on the Relationship Between Religious Coping and Mental Health Throughout COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic and the many associated socio-economic changes constitute a stressful event that required adaptation to new, dynamic, and often threatening conditions. According to the literature, coping strategies are one of the factors that determine a person's degree of adaptation to stressful situations. A systematic review and meta-analysis was performed on the relationship between religious coping and selected indicators of mental health. Due to the large amount of data, this work has been divided into two parts: this first part discusses positive mental health indicators, while the second discusses negative mental health indicators (Pankowski & Wytrychiewicz-Pankowska, 2023). A systematic review of PubMed, Science Direct, the Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, the Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects, and Google Scholar databases was carried out. In addition to the synthesis of information obtained from the research, a meta-analysis of correlation was also performed to determine the strengths of the relationships between the analysed variables, and selected moderators were assessed using meta-regression. Quality of life, well-being, satisfaction with life, happiness, and post-traumatic growth were the positive mental health indicators considered. Meta-analyses indicated a statistically significant relationship between positive religious coping and flourishing (well-being) with overall correlation values of 0.35 [0.30; 0.40]. Further calculations also indicated a relationship between negative religious coping and flourishing - 0.25 [- 0.34; - 0.15]. Data synthesis shows associations between religious coping and such indicators as satisfaction with life and post-traumatic growth, but these issues require further investigation.

The Polish Catholic Church in Martin Coronado, Buenos Aires, and its Role in the Life of the Argentinian Polish Community during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The objective of the article is to determine the role of the Catholic Church in the life of the Polish community in Argentina as exemplified by the Polish Catholic Centre in Martin Coronado during the pandemic caused by the SARS-Cov-2 coronavirus. The article presents opinions of the Polish community in Buenos Aires concerning the priestly service of the Bernardine friars during the pandemic. The research confirms that the Argentinian Polish community evaluates the work of the clergymen very highly and emphasises that thanks to their support, peace and constant contact through, inter alia, introduction of the broadcast of the masses in the Polish language, they felt the care and support of the priests, which was necessary during social isolation. The article will also present a proposal of the model of activities that Polish priests from Martin Coronado can implement during the COVID-19 pandemic so that the faithful feel even greater support and closeness to the Polish missionary centre in Argentina.

The Role of Religions in the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Narrative Review

Culture, religion and health are closely intertwined, profoundly affecting people's attitudes and behaviors as well as their conception and experience of illness and disease. In order to analyze the impact of religion in the current COVID-19 pandemic, we performed a literature review investigating both the scientific and grey literature on the topic. COVID-19 outbreaks reported in pilgrimages and religious ceremonies around the world-especially in the first wave of the pandemic wave-and the role played by religion in conveying culturally sensitive information about COVID-19 are some of the evidence we reviewed. Our research highlights how religions have represented, on the one hand, a risk for the spread of the virus and, on the other, a precious opportunity to engage people, and in particular minorities, in fighting the pandemic. To overcome this pandemic and to be prepared for similar ones in the future, scientists, politicians and health professionals should acknowledge the role that culture and religion play in people's lives and how it can assist in tackling complex health challenges.

Reproducibility of the brief religious coping inventory with African athletes' sample using ordinal factor analytical approach

Background

Previous studies have revealed that religious coping strategy is common among athletes due to the stressful experiences before and during competitions as part of the mental preparations they go through, the uncertainty of sporting outcomes, and other organizational issues they encounter. This research assessed the reproducibility of the Brief Religious Coping (RCOPE) instrument in an African setting using athletes' samples from different countries. Particularly, the research sought to assess the (1) factor structure of Brief RCOPE with an African sample, (2) construct validity of the RCOPE measure, and (3) measurement invariance of the RCOPE instrument based on gender and nationality.

Methods

The study surveyed a convenient sample of 300 athletes, including 164 male and 136 female athletes, from 3 African countries (Benin, Ghana, and Nigeria) who participated in the 2018 West African University Games. The Brief RCOPE instrument was administered to the athletes for validation purposes before the competition. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted using the ordinal factor analytic approach.

Results

This validation study confirmed the two-factor dimension (positive and negative religious coping) of the Brief RCOPE measure. Further, all items for each of the dimensions of the inventory contributed significantly to the measure of the Brief RCOPE domains. The positive and negative religious coping dimensions contributed more than half of the variance of their respective indicators. Measurement invariance across gender and nationality was confirmed.

Conclusion

Sufficient evidence was gathered to support the interpretation and use of the Brief RCOPE measure. Coaches and sports psychologists could adopt the Brief RCOPE measure to understand the mental or thought patterns of religious athletes based on existential concerns or stress accrued from impending competitions to inform appropriate religious coping interventions. This notwithstanding, the Minimum Clinical Important Difference (MCID) of the Brief RCOPE should be further investigated to enhance the utility of the instrument for use in intervention-based studies.

A meta-analytic review of the associations between dimensions of religious coping and psychological symptoms during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic

INTRODUCTION

In the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the unknown etiology and treatment of the highly transmissible coronavirus posed considerable threats to public mental health. Many people around the globe turned to religion as an attempt to mitigate their heightened psychological distress, but mixed findings have been obtained regarding the association between the use of religious coping and two psychological symptoms-anxiety and depressive symptoms-widely reported in the initial wave.

OBJECTIVE

The present meta-analysis was conducted to resolve the empirical inconsistency by synthesizing this body of studies and identifying both individual and national-level factors that accounted for the inconsistent findings.

METHODS

Following PRISMA guidelines, the literature search and data screening procedures yielded 42 eligible studies, with 25,438 participants (58% females, average age = 36.50 years) from 24 countries spanning seven world regions.

RESULTS

Overall, the results showed that only negative religious coping was positively associated with psychological symptoms (r = 0.2886, p < 0.0001). Although the associations of both general and positive religious coping with psychological symptoms were non-significant (rs = 0.0425 and -0.0240, ps > 0.39), the moderation analysis revealed significant positive associations between positive religious coping and psychological symptoms in two demographic groups who experienced greater pandemic distress than their counterparts: younger participants and female participants.

DISCUSSION

This meta-analysis provides a nuanced understanding of the complex nature of religious coping in the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic when the levels of public anxiety and stress were heightened. The exclusive use of religious coping may not be associated with low levels of psychological symptoms, implying the importance of supplementing the deployment of this strategy with an array of other strategies. Therapists of mental health interventions should show their clients how to make good use of positive religious coping together with other strategies, and how to avoid the use of negative religious coping, to handle their psychological problems.

SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION

https://osf.io/shb32/.

Influence of Family and Friends Level of Social Support on Psychological Symptoms Among the Older Adults in Nigeria

Introduction

Numerous studies have established the importance of social support on psychological symptoms among older adults, however, the distinct contribution of different levels of family and friends' social support has not been thoroughly assessed.

Objectives

This study determined the contribution of different levels of friend and family social support (high, moderate, low) on psychological symptoms among the older adults.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted among 538 older adults attending outpatient clinics at two selected teaching Hospitals in Nigeria from February to July, 2021.The data was collected using the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorders Scale, Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), and the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. The data was analyzed with SPSS version 23 and logistic regression was used for the inferential analysis.

Results

Older adults with moderate social support from family were 3.6 more likely to have depression symptoms than those with high family social support (AOR = 3.623, 95%CI 1.275-2.875, P = .020). Also, those with moderate family social support (AOR = 2.875, 95%CI 2.425-11.875,P = .002), low family social support (AOR = 2.966, 95%CI 1.312-3.875, P = .007), and low friends social support (AOR = 2.966, 95%CI 1.312-3.875, P = .009) were more likely to have anxiety symptoms than those with high social support.

Conclusion

High social support confers a protective measure against depression and is effective in reducing psychological symptoms among older adults.

The Effect of Religious-Spiritual Psychotherapy on Illness Perception and Inner Strength among Patients with Breast Cancer in Iran

Women diagnosed with breast cancer often suffer from illness-related issues, which negatively impact their illness perception and inner strength following diagnosis and/or during treatment. An investigation of the effectiveness of religious-spiritual psychotherapy based on the Twelver Shia Sects of Islam (RSP-TSS) was conducted among hospitalized cancer patients to determine whether it improved their disease perception and inner strength. Forty-five women (ages 31-58) diagnosed with breast cancer in Iran were randomly assigned to RSP-TSS (n = 15), attention control (n = 15) and untreated control groups (n = 15). To meet the needs of hospitalized participants, the manualized RSP-TSS protocol was adapted to consist of ten sessions, each lasting 90 min. Sessions were conducted once weekly for 10 weeks. Primary outcome measures were the Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ-R) and the Inner Strength Questionnaire (ISQ). Data were collected in pre-intervention, post-intervention, and 4 months following the intervention. Repeated MANOVA measures showed that, as compared with the attention control and untreated control groups, the RSP-TSS group achieved significant improvements in illness perception and inner strengths, and those gains were maintained during the 4-month follow-up. By reframing illness perception and building inner strength, spiritual and religious-based interventions may improve patients coping with cancer and improve the quality of life for women hospitalized with breast cancer. These promising results warrant further investigation into the efficacy of spiritual and religious-based interventions to remediate illness perception and inner strength problems in women diagnosed with serious medical illnesses.

Coping strategy with coronavirus disease-2019 health anxiety in nursing students

BACKGROUND

The high prevalence of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) has a lot of stress on medical students. This study was conducted to investigating the adaptation strategy with COVID-19 health anxiety in nursing students.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This study was designed as a cross-sectional study. Participants of the study were 431 students of the Nursing and Midwifery Faculty of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences. Inclusion criteria were studying at the time of the outbreak of COVID-19 and willingness to participate in the study. Data collection tools included participated in the study. Data collection tools included a demographic questionnaire, Health Anxiety and Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (Short Form). Reliability of tools was assessed and confirmed with Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Cronbach's alpha coefficient of health anxiety was 0.76 and Cronbach's alpha coefficient of Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations was 0.79. Data were collected between July 2020 and September 2020. Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to examine the relationship between the data. Data were analyzed with SPSS 26.

RESULTS

Findings indicated that most of the participants were female, single, 22-28 years old, and undergraduate students. The mean of COVID-19 health anxiety was 5.59 ± 17.04. Results showed that 19.58 ± 5.05 of the participants used avoidance-focused adaptation strategies, 25.12 ± 3.88 problem-focused adaptation strategies, and 19.32 ± 5.13 emotion-focused adaptation strategies.

CONCLUSION

The COVID-19 health anxiety was higher in female, young, and married students. The problem-focused adaptation strategy should be further taught so that students can better coping with COVID-19 health anxiety.

Religiousness in the first year of COVID-19: A systematic review of empirical research

The COVID-19 pandemic emerged suddenly in early 2020, posing a serious health threat and creating tremendous stress and distress across the world. Religion has been shown to play important and varied roles in previous disasters and health crises, but its roles in the pandemic have yet to be outlined. We aimed to summarize the research conducted on religion and COVID-19 in the first year of the pandemic with a systematic review of studies that specifically involved individual-level religiousness and COVID-19. Searches were conducted in PubMed, Scopus, CINAHL, and PsycINFO covering a one-year period from the first published mention of the novel coronavirus (Jan. 5, 2020) through January 4, 2021. We included articles about COVID-19 that were peer-reviewed and empirical, measured and reported results on religion on an individual level, and were available in English. Our search produced 137 empirical articles that met the inclusion criteria. In the course of sorting studies by their primary focus, eight categories of empirical findings emerged: general distress and wellbeing (53 articles), COVID-19-specific stress (24 articles), beliefs in science, conspiracies, and misinformation (15 articles), COVID-19 public health behaviors (12 articles), perceived risk of COVID-19 (10 articles), perceived growth or positive changes taking place during the pandemic (nine articles), health behaviors (three articles), and consumer behavior (three articles). Findings indicated that religiousness was associated with both unique benefits and challenges and played a significant role in the pandemic. Religiousness was associated with a broad range of outcomes across geographical regions and populations during the first year of COVID-19. It was a commonly reported coping mechanism with varying levels of favorable associations with mental health and COVID-19-related behaviors.

Resilience resources and coping strategies of COVID-19 female long haulers: A qualitative study

Background

Female long haulers deal with persistent post-acute COVID-19 symptoms that have serious health implications. This study aimed to identify resilience resources at multiple socio-ecological levels for female long haulers and describe how resilience resources affect their responses to long COVID.

Methods

Purposive sampling was adopted to recruit participants through social media from April to June 2021 followed by 15 semi-structured interviews. An inductive analytical approach was adopted to categorize themes by open and axial coding that were verified by peer review.

Results

Female long haulers relied on resources at various socio-ecological levels to foster their resilience in response to long COVID. At the individual level, they utilized cognitive and emotional resources to increase knowledge, learn new skills, set goals, and manage emotions; behavioral resources (e.g., internal motivation and executive functioning) to perform physical, creative, and recreational activities, and adopt healthier eating habits; and spiritual resources to perform spiritual rituals and connect with God. At the social level, the support from existing relationships and/or online social support groups enhanced their social identity and provided material and informational resources. At the health systems level, the guidance from counselors and physicians and availability of clinics, medicines, and health equipment assisted them in symptom management and medication adherence.

Conclusion

The resilience of female long haulers can be enhanced through (1) offering financial and health-related resources, (2) developing online social-support groups, (3) counseling and care service training for healthcare professionals, and (4) implementing more psychosocial interventions by labor organizations.

Religious coping and young adult's mental well-being during Covid-19: Testing a double moderated mediation model

The literature describes religious coping as an important predictor of mental well-being. Present study is aimed at extending this knowledge by assessing whether specific religious coping regulates specific cognitive emotional responses to improve well-being during Covid pandemic, an extreme international event with significant impacts on individuals and communities. A sample of young adults responded to self-report measures of negative and positive religious coping, positive reappraisal, self-blaming, and mental well-being. Results revealed that positive religious coping was a positive predictor of mental well-being and positive reappraisal mediated this positive link. Also, gender and physical health status significantly interacted with positive reappraisal to predict mental well-being in these mediational associations. More specifically, indirect effects of positive reappraisal were positive and significant for men and for participants with better physical health compared with women and those with poor physical health. However, negative religious coping was not a significant correlate of mental well-being but a positive correlate of self-blame. Results suggest that positive religious coping facilitates positive regulation of emotions for improved mental well-being in young adults and particularly young men.

Acculturation, Work-Related Stressors, and Respective Coping Strategies among Male Indonesian Migrant Workers in the Manufacturing Industry in Taiwan: A Post-COVID Investigation

Globalization has prompted cross-cultural migration in search of employment opportunities, and poor adaptation during acculturation is widely known to cause additional psychosocial stress. Hence, the objective of this study was to investigate migrant workers' perceptions of acculturation, identify work-related stressors, and understand the respective coping strategies among male Indonesians in the manufacturing industry, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fifteen workers were recruited and interviewed on their acculturation experiences. We found that the workers were susceptible to forced adaptation to stressful conditions relating to work organization, economic distress, interaction with the manpower agencies, language barriers, and so on. During the pandemic, workers experienced overload, economic hardship, suspended home visits, isolation, discrimination, and fear of cluster infection in the crowded dormitory. We also found that workers were able to adopt coping strategies by capitalizing on resources at the individual, institutional, and governmental policy levels to actively solve problems, increase emotional support, and fortify self-appraisals. The identified coping strategies could inform policy development to assist with positive adaptation and promote the well-being of the migrant worker population.

Coping profiles and differences in well‐being during the COVID‐19 pandemic: A latent profile analysis

During the current COVID-19 pandemic, people need to cope with multiple stressors which may affect their well-being. This study aimed (1) to identify latent coping profiles in the German general population, and (2) to investigate differences between these profiles in well-being. In total, N = 2326 German participants were recruited as part of the European Society of Traumatic Stress Studies (ESTSS) ADJUST study from June to September 2020 using an online survey. Coping strategies were assessed using the Brief-COPE and the Pandemic Coping Scale; well-being was assessed using the WHO-5 Well-Being Index. Coping profiles were identified using latent profile analysis; differences between profiles were examined using the automatic BCH method and multiple group analyses. Five coping profiles were identified that included different types and numbers of coping strategies: (1) High functional coping (17.84%), (2) Moderate functional coping (40.63%), (3) High functional and religious coping (9.07%), (4) Low functional coping (22.06%), (5) Moderate functional and dysfunctional coping (10.40%). The identified profiles significantly differed in well-being (χ²  = 503.68, p <0.001). Coping profiles indicating high functional coping were associated with greater well-being compared to coping profiles indicating low (χ²  = 82.21, p <0.001) or primarily dysfunctional (χ²  = 354.33, p <0.001) coping. These results provide insight into how people differ in their coping strategies when dealing with stressors in an early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study indicates higher levels of well-being in coping profiles with more frequent use of functional strategies. To promote well-being in the general population, it might be beneficial to train functional coping strategies in appropriate interventions that are associated with increased well-being.

Life orientation and psychological distress in COVID recovered patients-the role of coping as a mediator

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has not only brought the risk of death but has brought unbearable psychological pressures to the people. Mental health of COVID patients is expected to be affected by the continuous spread of the pandemic. This study aims to find the mediating role of coping styles in the relationship between life orientation and psychological distress among COVID recovered patients. It was hypothesized that: life orientation is likely to have a relationship with coping; coping is likely to have a relationship with psychological distress and coping is likely to mediate the relationship between life orientation and psychological distress among patients recovered from COVID. For this purpose, 378 COVID-10 recovered patients’ men (190) and women (188). Urdu translations of the Life Orientation scale revised, Brief Coping Orientation to Problem Experienced (COPE) and Impact of event scales were used to collect data. Results show that emotion-focused and avoidant coping mediate the relationship between life orientation and psychological distress. The research has implications for mental health practitioners and individuals dealing with health-related issues.

Using Spiritual Connections to Cope With Stress and Anxiety During the COVID-19 Pandemic

During the initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, stress and anxiety were pervasive among the masses due to high morbidity and mortality. Besides the fear of coronavirus was also particularly driven by social media. Many people started to look for faith and spiritual connections to gain comfort. The role of spiritual ties and religious beliefs in relation to coping with pandemic stress has acquired the attention of researchers in some parts of the world. This cross-sectional survey aimed at assessing the intensity of stress and anxiety symptoms experienced by people and how much they were alleviated by employing spiritual connections. The study sample comprises 795 respondents with 52% males and 48% females living in Saudi Arabia. The brief online study questionnaire collected data about background variables, anxiety and stress scale from DASS-21, and items from the WHOQOL (SRBP) instrument assessed the use of spiritual beliefs to cope. Multiple regression models were tested to determine the role of spiritual connections after adjusting demographic variables. Results illustrated that after adjusting for gender and age, participants' anxiety symptoms decreased by (β = -0.27; p = 0.000) units with each unit increase in the use of spiritual connections, and participants' stress symptoms reduce by (β = -0.36; p = 0.000) units with each unit increase in coping with spirituality. Additionally, females' risk to experience anxiety and stress symptoms was more than males [(β = 0.88; p = 0.01) and (β = 0.92; p = 0.000)], respectively. An increase in age decreases the likelihood of experiencing anxiety symptoms and stress symptoms by (β = -0.75; p = 0.02) and (β = -0.11; p = 0.000) units, respectively. Findings support the protective role of spiritual connections despite small beta coefficients. The social and cultural context in Saudi Arabia favors deep-rooted connections with spirituality and faith. Our findings support the fact that the reliance on spiritual connections helped older people to deal with exaggerated fear during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and reduces the risk of experiencing anxiety and stress symptoms. Females and younger participants were relatively vulnerable to developing these symptoms. We discussed these findings considering some recent studies that reported similar relationships and made recommendations for future research.

How Did the Psychological Well-Being of Church of England Clergy and Laity Change From the First to the Third National COVID-19 Lockdowns?

The balanced affect model of psychological well-being conceptualises positive and negative affect as two separate continua and well-being as the function of these two entities. The COVID-19 pandemic lasted over two years in the United Kingdom and initially caused widespread declines in mental health and well-being. This paper tests whether such declines continued or stabilised as the pandemic lockdowns persisted. The psychological well-being of a religiously committed sample was assessed by perceived changes in affect balance (a function of negative and positive affect) using The Index of Affect Balance Change (TIBACh) from the first to the third COVID-19 lockdowns in the Church of England. The 2020 sample in the first lockdown comprised 792 stipendiary parochial clergy and 2,815 laity who were not in licensed ministry in the Church of England. A repeat survey in the third lockdown in England in 2021 collected responses from 401 equivalent clergy and 1027 equivalent laity. Both clergy and lay people showed increased proportions reporting lower positive affect and increased proportions reporting higher negative affect in the second survey, suggesting psychological well-being had continued to deteriorate as lockdowns persisted.

Relationship between perceived threat of COVID-19 and burnout among frontline nurses: A mediation analysis

BACKGROUND

Burnout of nurses during the Coronavirus of 2019 pandemic can end up extremely expensive for societies. It is found that positive religious coping (PRC) and a secure God attachment are effective for shielding against the adverse consequences of being exposed to stressful situations.

METHODS

This research explores the relationships among God attachment, religious coping, and burnout among nurses who are confronted with COVID-19 as a perceived threat through a model based on the combination of attachment theory and the Job Demands-Resources model. Analysis was done using SMART-PLS.

RESULTS

The results reveal that perceived threat of COVID-19 (PTC) positively correlates with burnout among nurses and that secure attachment to God and PRC can buffer this relationship, while insecure attachment to God, including anxious and avoidant attachment, along with negative religious coping positively mediates the relationship between PTC and burnout.

CONCLUSION

Finally, this study suggests managerial implications of these findings for healthcare organizations and a recommendation for helping out staff to help them manage such threats and their attachment to God.

The Role of Spirituality and Religiosity in Healthcare During the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Integrative Review of the Scientific Literature

The pandemic caused by the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has been affecting populations globally since the end of 2019. Previous studies have indicated that spirituality in these times of crisis serves as a source of hope and well-being that helps people get through the day. This study investigated the role of spirituality and religiosity in healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic. An integrative review of the scientific literature available on PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases and a review of the gray literature in the Information System on Gray Literature in Europe (OpenGrey) were carried out. From a total of 1,338 articles searched; 25 articles were included in this review (22 quantitative observational, 2 qualitative and one randomized controlled trial). Our findings revealed the importance of including spirituality in clinical practice for both health professionals and patients. On the one hand, spirituality can be considered a good coping strategy used by healthcare professionals to promote mental health and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting in greater patient satisfaction with the care given. On the other hand, addressing spiritual needs of individuals leads to a reduction in stress, anxiety, depression, and an increase in resilience and hope among patients.

The Link between Subjective Religiosity, Social Support, and Mental Health among Young Students in Eastern Europe during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study of Poland and Ukraine

Religiousness has a positive effect on the mental health of an individual and social groups in many difficult situations. In the conducted research, we wanted to check, inter alia, whether religiosity and social support are positively related to the mental health of students during the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland and Ukraine. The research was conducted at a time (August 2021) when the very contagious Delta variant was spreading over Europe, and numerous pandemic-related personal restrictions and obligations (such as using facemasks in selected places, social distancing, and obligatory self-isolation of the ill or those who had contact with the pathogen) were in force in both countries. For this purpose, a representative survey was carried out using the CAPI technique on a sample of 1000 students in Poland (50% boys and 50% girls in the age range 10–19) and 1022 in Ukraine (51% boys and 49% girls in the age range 10–18). The results of the research shows that depression measured by the PHQ-9 scale was experienced by 20% of students in Poland, and 13% in Ukrainian. Anxiety, measured with the GAD-7 scale, was experienced by 9% of the Polish and 6% of the Ukrainian students. The performed regression analysis showed that religiosity had no effect on the mental health of students. The main risk factor for mental disorders was the lack of social support.

Qur’anic Bibliotherapy Intervention in Pregnant Women Experiencing Anxiety During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Indonesia: A Qualitative Exploratory Study

BACKGROUND: The disease caused by coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) has been stated as a global epidemic by the WHO. The COVID-19 pandemic adds many risk factors to maternal mental health during the perinatal period. The impact of anxiety during pregnancy is adverse obstetric consequences such as premature birth, inadequate antenatal care, requests for elective cesarean delivery, low APGAR scores of infants, and postpartum depression. Nursing interventions to overcome anxiety can be done through spiritual and religious intervention approaches. One of the spiritual interventions for the Muslim population to improve religious coping is Qur’anic Bibliotherapy (QB) as Islamic bibliotherapy. AIM: This study aimed to explore the use of QB interventions for pregnant women experiencing anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: A qualitative exploratory study was conducted to explore the experience of the intervention given to the informant. The qualitative samples were ten respondents with moderate-to-severe anxiety levels. The anxiety instrument used was the Zung Anxiety Scale. RESULTS: The themes obtained from in-depth interviews with semi-structured interviews were recognizing COVID-19 and its perceived impact, the impetus for changing resilience to the COVID-19 pandemic, parents’ role, and the benefits of QB for pregnant women in the COVID-19 pandemic. CONCLUSIONS: QB encourages informants’ positive thinking, feeling, spiritual, and attitude patterns. QB can be used as a complementary Islamic intervention for health workers, especially nurses, in providing nursing care to Muslim patients.

"We are also here"-Spiritual Care Practitioners' Experiences of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study from Poland

Although healthcare professionals have become the symbol of risk and sacrifice during the COVID-19 pandemic, spiritual care practitioners (SCP) have also put themselves at great risk while offering their service in hospitals, hospices and other healthcare facilities. This study was designed to explore the lived experiences of SCP during the current health crisis in Poland. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty-four SCP. Nine major themes emerged from the interviews: personal reactions to the pandemic, SCP's perception of the pandemic, the impact of COVID-19 on the provision of spiritual care, spiritual needs during the pandemic, work-related emotions, the impact of the COVID-19 on religion, the role of spiritual care during the outbreak, the healthcare professionals' perceptions of SCP and barriers to the provision of spiritual care during the pandemic. The SCP indicated that although the COVID-19 crisis has affected the availability of pastoral, religious and spiritual care, it has amplified the importance of such care and has positively influenced the visibility of SCP in modern healthcare practice. Nonetheless, in such desperate times, SCP are still neglected and should be further recognised and integrated into the healthcare system.

“We are also here”—Spiritual Care Practitioners’ Experiences of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study from Poland

Although healthcare professionals have become the symbol of risk and sacrifice during the COVID-19 pandemic, spiritual care practitioners (SCP) have also put themselves at great risk while offering their service in hospitals, hospices and other healthcare facilities. This study was designed to explore the lived experiences of SCP during the current health crisis in Poland. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty-four SCP. Nine major themes emerged from the interviews: personal reactions to the pandemic, SCP’s perception of the pandemic, the impact of COVID-19 on the provision of spiritual care, spiritual needs during the pandemic, work-related emotions, the impact of the COVID-19 on religion, the role of spiritual care during the outbreak, the healthcare professionals’ perceptions of SCP and barriers to the provision of spiritual care during the pandemic. The SCP indicated that although the COVID-19 crisis has affected the availability of pastoral, religious and spiritual care, it has amplified the importance of such care and has positively influenced the visibility of SCP in modern healthcare practice. Nonetheless, in such desperate times, SCP are still neglected and should be further recognised and integrated into the healthcare system.

Psychological Wellbeing and Associated Factors Among Ethnic Minorities During the COVID-19 Pandemic

This study assessed the psychological wellbeing and its associated factors amongst ethnic minorities during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. A total of 310 Hong Kong South Asians aged 41.3 (SD 13.7) years completed an anonymous online survey between July 2020 and February 2021. The results showed an overall moderate level of stress and high levels of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms amongst South Asian minorities. Multivariable regression analyses suggested that being single/divorced, following Hinduism or other non-Muslim religions, having lower perceived knowledge of COVID-19 and having worried about losing job were significant predictors of higher levels of depression, anxiety and/or stress; additionally, being male, having a low monthly household income, having worried about losing job and healthcare collapse were significant predictors of a higher level of PTSD symptoms. The findings suggest an urgent need to alleviate the psychological impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on ethnic minorities, specifically for those most vulnerable to these impacts.

The role of religion in mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic: the Malaysian multi-faith perspectives

Social distancing is crucial in breaking the cycle of transmission of COVID-19. However, many religions require the faithful to congregate. In Malaysia, the number of COVID-19 cases spiked up from below 30 in February 2020 to more than a thousand a month later. The sudden increase was mostly linked to a large Islamic gathering attended by 16,000 near the capital, Kuala Lumpur. Another large COVID-19 cluster was from a church gathering in Kuching, Sarawak. Within a few weeks, Malaysia became the worst hit country by COVID-19 in Southeast Asia. While religious leaders have advised social distancing among their congregants, the belief that "God is our shield" is often cited for gathering. There is a need to promote sound decision-making among religious adherents so that they will not prioritize their loyalty to the subjective interpretation of religion over evidence-based medicine. Malaysia, a multi-cultural and multi-faith country, is an example of how religious beliefs could strongly influence health behaviours at individual and community levels. In this article, we detail the religious aspects of COVID-19 prevention and control in Malaysia and discuss the possible role of religious organizations in encouraging sound decision-making among religious adherents in mitigating this crisis. We make recommendations on how to promote a partnership between the healthcare system and religious organizations, and how religion and faith could be integrated into health promotion channels and resources in the response of COVID-19 and future communicable diseases.

God’s Benevolent Love in the Time of COVID-19 Pandemic: Articulations and Experiences of Select Filipino Youth

Current studies show that the Christian faith is still robust in Philippine society and culture despite the global health crisis. This study investigates how select Filipino Christian youths intuited God’s benevolent love in the time of “social distancing” and how their experience of God’s benevolence helped them to carry on despite the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors administered open-ended survey questions about God’s love to select Filipino Christian youths. The responses were analyzed using thematic analysis and categorizations. Using contextual analysis, the researchers critically reflected upon the respondents’ notions of God’s love and religious experiences from the two poles of Filipino culture and Judeo-Christian tradition. According to select Filipino Christian youths, God is present and faithful. God’s “kagandahang-loob” (benevolent love) for human persons is evinced in the care and kindness of family members and neighbors. God also enables human persons to prevail over challenges in life, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, God is the ultimate source of Christian hope. This hope is firmly anchored in Jesus Christ and the Church. Furthermore, God is forgiving and merciful. He continues to bless and give graces to human persons despite their sinfulness. These contemporary conceptualizations of God’s perfect interior goodness helped the select Filipino Christian youths cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Spirituality, Personality, and Emotional Distress During COVID-19 Pandemic in Croatia

This study examined the association between spiritual quality of life (QoL), spiritual coping, emotional distress, and personality during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in a convenience sample of Croatian adults (n = 2,860, 80.6% women). Participants completed an online questionnaire that collected information on sociodemographic characteristics, distress (the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale 21), spiritual coping and spiritual QoL (the WHO Quality of Life-Spirituality, Religiousness, and Personal Beliefs), and personality (the International Personality Item Pool). The hierarchical regression analysis demonstrated that personality traits, especially emotional stability, were the most significant predictors of mental health outcomes. Spiritual coping styles were a predictor of worse, while spiritual QoL of better psychological outcomes. Results demonstrate the complex relations between different aspects of spirituality/religiosity with personality and emotional outcomes and suggest that distress motivates the engagement of spiritual coping in times of disaster.

Predictors of psychological stress occurring after the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland: A cross-sectional study

The article presents the results of research aimed to identify the predictors of psychological distress among Poles 7 months after the occurrence of the first case of COVID-19. In order to gather the research material, the CAWI on-line survey method was applied and carried out within the framework of the Ariadna Research Panel on the sample of 1,079 Poles aged 15 and over. The results of the conducted research indicate that Polish society experienced psychological distress during the first wave of the pandemic. According to the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10), no mental disorders were observed among 36% of Poles, mild mental disorders were observed among 23% of respondents, average levels of disorders were observed among 18% of respondents, whereas high levels of disorders were observed among 23% of respondents. A hierarchical linear regression analysis was used to identify the risk factors of psychological distress. In the first stage, socio-demographic variables explained 13% of the distress variance. In the second stage, the variables measuring social nuisances of the pandemic were introduced, which increased the percentage of the explained stress variance to 24%. In the third stage, the introduced psychological variables increased the percentage of the explained variance to 65%. The main factor which increased stress levels was neuroticism. The conducted analyses have shown that the lack of social, economic and psychological capital significantly increases the susceptibility to distress when a threat to life and health lasts for a prolonged period of time.

Mental health and coping strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative study of unemployed and employed people in Nigeria

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) significantly disrupted human activities all over the world. Despite this, little or nothing is known about mental health and coping strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic among the unemployed and employed people in Nigeria. Therefore, this study was an effort towards bridging this knowledge gap. We employed a qualitative design with 66 participants (age range = 18-62 years) who described how the COVID-19 pandemic affected their mental health and how they coped during the COVID-19 pandemic. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Our findings revealed distressing impacts (e.g., depressive and anxious impacts, stress, loss of job, financial challenges, loneliness, etc.) for the unemployed and employed groups. Further, the unemployed group utilized more positive coping strategies (e.g., engaging in activities, hope, relaxation, connecting with others, etc.) than the employed group; whereas, only the employed group utilized a maladaptive coping strategy (alcohol consumption). These data have practical implications for protecting mental health and fostering positive coping in these groups during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

Psychological Well-Being of Malaysian University Students during COVID-19 Pandemic: Do Religiosity and Religious Coping Matter?

The COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions imposed that changed the teaching and learning activities may add a psychological impact to the existing academic stress faced by university students. Past studies have associated low levels of psychological disorder with high religiosity and positive religious coping (RC). This study aimed to determine the level of psychological disorder among university students in Malaysia during the COVID-19 pandemic and measure their association with religiosity and religious coping (RC). An online cross-sectional survey was conducted between March and June 2020 involving 450 students. The survey instruments consisted of sociodemographic proforma, Duke University Religious Index (DUREL) for religiosity, Brief RCOPE Scale for RC and General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12) for psychological disorder; 36% of the participants experienced psychological disorder. Younger age, being a Muslim, living in the Green/Yellow zone and higher negative RC were significantly associated with psychological disorder. Higher positive RC was found to be protective against psychological disorder. However, the level of religiosity had no significant association with psychological disorder. In conclusion, the level of psychological disorder among university students has been high during the pandemic. Measures and interventions focusing on positive RC and reducing negative RC are recommended to improve the psychological well-being.

Religious Coping and Life Satisfaction during the COVID-19 Pandemic among Polish Catholics. The Mediating Effect of Coronavirus Anxiety

Recent data have indicated that people may have experienced fear during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to deepen our understanding of the relationship between religious coping and life satisfaction by analysing the indirect effects of fear of COVID-19.

METHODS

This study included 365 people (75% women) aged 18-78 years. The procedure consisted of completing questionnaires to measure religious coping, COVID-19 anxiety, satisfaction with life, and satisfaction with social support.

RESULTS

Structural equation modelling showed that positive religious coping was related to greater life satisfaction and greater satisfaction with social support during the pandemic. Moreover, fear of COVID-19 mediated the relationship between negative religious coping and life satisfaction and social support satisfaction.

CONCLUSIONS

The data suggest a need for practitioners to focus on interventions that enhance positive religious coping to improve life satisfaction during the spread of infectious diseases.

Mental health and resilience during the coronavirus pandemic: A machine learning approach

Objective

This study explored risk and resilience factors of mental health functioning during the coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) pandemic.

Methods

A sample of 467 adults (M age = 33.14, 63.6% female) reported on mental health (depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD], and somatic symptoms), demands and impacts of COVID‐19, resources (e.g., social support, health care access), demographics, and psychosocial resilience factors.

Results

Depression, anxiety, and PTSD rates were 44%, 36%, and 23%, respectively. Supervised machine learning models identified psychosocial factors as the primary significant predictors across outcomes. Greater trauma coping self‐efficacy and forward‐focused coping, but not trauma‐focused coping, were associated with better mental health. When accounting for psychosocial resilience factors, few external resources and demographic variables emerged as significant predictors.

Conclusion

With ongoing stressors and traumas, employing coping strategies that emphasize distraction over trauma processing may be warranted. Clinical and community outreach efforts should target trauma coping self‐efficacy to bolster resilience during a pandemic.

Social support through religion and psychological well-being: COVID-19 and coping strategies in Indonesia

The Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) originated in China at the end of 2019, the virus festered there for four months before spreading globally. Impacting the developed and developing world including Indonesia. It has transformed social, economic and political practices social life, everyday habits and government policies, with multi-dimensional consequences on human life. The present study endeavours to explore the relationship between religiosity, social capital, and psychological well-being of the general public, particularly in terms of coping with the pandemic. In addition to this, the study aims to highlight the importance of public awareness regarding social distancing, use of religion as a coping mechanism, and living a healthy lifestyle during pandemic. For knowing the perception of the masses, an online survey by using a self-administered questionnaire was carried out among coronavirus patients, the general public, social media activists, students, and professionals across Indonesia. The findings indicate that the pandemic has altered the lifestyle of the masses in different ways and that people have varied perceptions towards this virus regarding its spread and preventive measures. The study also reveals that, social capital (β = .418, p < .001), psychological well-being (β = .343, p < .001), and religious coping (β = .145, p <. 01) have a significant amount of the variance of coronavirus situational stress (F =  69.77, p < .001, R2 = 0.485). Lastly, the study suggests that, adopting preventative measures, standard operating procedures that are sustainable and healthy forms of coping with the pandemic will be equally as important as medical care in order to contain and eventually eradicate the virus.

Religious Coping Amidst a Pandemic: Impact on COVID-19-Related Anxiety

Religious coping is one potential strategy to manage stressors. Positive religious coping has been linked to better physical and mental health outcomes, while negative religious coping has been associated with increased stress and anxiety. The primary objective of this study was to examine individuals' use of religious coping during the COVID-19 pandemic. We examined the relationship between COVID-19 anxiety and religious coping in a national sample of 970 individuals located within the USA recruited via Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) between September 12, 2020, and September 25, 2020. Findings indicate negative religious coping is most strongly associated with COVID-19 anxiety, as higher levels of negative religious coping were positively related to COVID-19 anxiety. In a moderated multiple regression wherein positive religious coping and negative religious coping were included in an interaction term, only negative religious coping was significantly associated with COVID-19 anxiety. This may have been due, in part, because individual's typical religious engagement was disrupted by social distancing and isolation measures. When accounting for participant age, sex, religious beliefs and behaviors, and negative religious coping, positive religious coping was negatively, although weakly, associated with COVID-19 anxiety. These findings suggest that negative religious coping has a stronger association with COVID-19 anxiety than positive religious coping.

Self-Compassion and Social Connectedness as Predictors of “Peace and Meaning” during Spain’s Initial COVID-19 Lockdown

The COVID-19 lockdown has had a massive psychological impact on mental health in the general population, with increases in anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Spiritual well-being, specifically peace and meaning, has already been identified as one of the main protective factors for these disorders in the COVID-19 context. The aim of the present study is to identify facilitating elements for peace and meaning during the COVID-19 lockdown in Spain. Online surveys were used to obtain data from a sample of 3480 Spanish people. Self-compassion and social support were positively related with peace and meaning, while loneliness and perceived discrimination were negatively related. The model for peace and meaning was statistically significant, explaining 47% of the variance. The significant variables were self-kindness, family support, mindfulness, and sense of belonging having a positive association and loneliness a negative one.

Cultural Responses to Covid-19 Pandemic: Religions, Illness Perception, and Perceived Stress

Many psychological researchers have proven the deteriorating effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic on public mental health. In Malaysia, various Covid-19 clusters were associated with religious gatherings. From a cultural psychology perspective, how ethno-religious groups respond to this crisis originating from their unique rationality and ecological systems. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the illness perceptions of major religious groups (Christian, Muslim, and Buddhist) in Malaysia toward the Covid-19 pandemic, their stress levels, and the relationship between illness perception, stress, and forms of religious expression during the lockdown period. Through an online survey method, 608 Malaysian religious believers were included in this mixed-method empirical study, which adapted standardized instruments [Duke University Religion Index (DUREL), Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (BIPQ), and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)]. Statistical analysis showed that all three groups reported moderate levels of stress in average without any significant difference after controlling for age. Both internal and external forms of religious expression had a significant negative relationship with stress levels. Personal control, comprehension, and emotions domains of illness perception accounted for a significant variance in the stress level. Furthermore, religious expression significantly moderated the relationship between some illness perception domains and stress. Qualitative coding revealed that most participants perceived human behavior and attitudes, sociopolitical, and sociological factors as causal factors to the current pandemic. These findings confirmed the relationship between religious expression, illness belief, and stress regulation during the pandemic lockdown. Incidental findings of age as a potential protective factor for Malaysian believers warrants further study. In the conclusion, implications for public health policymakers and religious communities on pandemic prevention and well-being promotion were discussed.

Quality of Life and Its Associations with Religiosity and Religious Coping among Outpatients with Psychosis in Singapore

This cross-sectional study investigated the relationship of religiosity, the use of positive and negative religious coping methods, and quality of life (QOL) among 364 outpatients with psychosis in Singapore. Positive religious coping was significantly associated with better scores on physical (β = 0.51, p = 0.02) and psychological (β = 0.64, p = 0.01) QOL domains in the regression model. Negative religious coping was related to worse QOL in all four domains: physical (β = −0.44, p = 0.03), psychological (β = −0.76, p < 0.01), social (β = −0.54, p = 0.03), and environment (β = −0.65, p < 0.01). Increased participation in organizational religious activities was positively associated with higher QOL for psychological (β = 2.47, p < 0.01), social relationships (β = 2.66, p = 0.01), and environment (β = 2.09, p = 0.01) domains. Interestingly, those with no religious affiliation were found with higher scores in the QOL domain for social relationships (β = 4.59, p = 0.02). Religious coping plays an important role for the QOL of outpatients with psychosis. Greater awareness of the importance of religion in this population may improve cultural competence in treatment. Individuals with psychosis may benefit from greater community support and collaboration between clinical and religious community-based organizations to improve social integration and QOL.

A cross-sectional survey of activities to support mental wellness during the COVID-19 pandemic

BACKGROUND

During the COVID-19 pandemic, public health restrictions such as social distancing, isolation and self-quarantine have been implemented for several months. Because of these restrictions, in-person contact with friends, family, and mental health supports had been limited, potentially impacting mental wellbeing.

OBJECTIVES

In this study, we examined the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of adults and investigated the types of activities people engage in to manage and maintain their mental health.

METHODS

An online survey was circulated in Canada and had a total of 221 participants from September 24 to December 8, 2020.

RESULTS

The majority of participants were females (73.2%), between the ages of 18 and 34 (51.1%), and employed full-time (56.1%). Individuals who are unemployed and those with an annual income less than $25,000 had the highest scores in depression, anxiety and psychological distress. Around 19.4% of the sample scored above the cutpoint for depression, which is higher compared to a pre-pandemic population prevalence of 4.7%. Similarly, higher prevalence of anxiety and distress symptoms were observed: 16.3% of the sample had moderate anxiety symptoms compared to a pre-pandemic population prevalence of 11.6%; and 37.7% of the sample had moderate distress symptoms compared to a pre-pandemic population prevalence of 20%.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the mental health of many adults and that individuals engage in a wide range of activities that may maintain and promote mental wellness during the pandemic, such as exercising, reading, and listening to music.