Date of Award

2009

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Abstract

Several decades of research in thePsychology of religion have established a positive relationship between religious involvement and well-being. However, research into mediators responsible for this relationship is limited. Two mediators that have been proposed, yet appear to share some overlap, are religious coping and emotion regulation (ER). This project examined whether positive religious coping could be reduced to a form of ER, or whether positive religious coping is associated with distinct affective and psychological health benefits above and beyond ER. Participants included 317 undergraduate students at Indiana State University who completed questionnaires regarding their use of certain ER strategies and forms of religious coping, and levels of affect and psychological well-being. It was hypothesized that positive religious coping would account for a significant amount of additional variance in both affect and overall psychological well-being, and that positive religious coping would account for more variance overall than ER in at least one aspect of psychological well-being. Results indicated that positive religious coping accounted for a significant amount of variance above and beyond ER in positive affect, presence of meaning, and search for meaning. Positive religious coping did not account for more variance overall than ER in any outcome variable measured. Overall, results supported Fredrickson's broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions and its relationship to religious involvement (2002). Discussion is provided regarding why or why not hypotheses were supported. In addition, clinical applications of the results, limitations of the study, and directions for future research are provided.

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