Religious/spiritual coping among women trauma survivors with mental health and substance use disorders

This study examines the types of religious/spiritual coping used by women trauma survivors with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders. Analyses based on data from 2 large racially diverse samples indicate that women from the study population rely considerably more on positive, than negative, religious coping, and that their reliance on religious coping, in general, is significantly higher than that of the general population. Numerous significant relationships were also found between the severity of trauma-related and mental health symptoms and more negative religious coping. This study further suggests that more frequent childhood abuse and childhood sexual violence are especially associated with negative religious coping in adulthood. Findings support the importance of spiritual coping for women trauma survivors with co-occurring disorders and suggest the value of increased attention to spirituality in behavioral health services, especially in assessment and therapeutic relationships.