ORCID Identifiers
Document Type
Article
Source of Publication
Religions
Publication Date
10-1-2020
Abstract
© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Positive religious coping has frequently been associated with better mental health outcomes when dealing with stressful life events (e.g., natural disasters, domestic abuse, divorce). The COVID-19 pandemic, and the associated infection prevention and control measures (curfew, quarantine, restricted travel, social distancing), represent a society-wide stressor. This study explored positive religious coping among the Muslim and Christian residents of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) during the early stages of the national response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants (N = 543) completed an online survey assessing religious coping in response to the pandemic, along with symptom measures of depression, anxiety and history of psychological disorder. Muslims (N = 339) reported significantly higher levels of positive religious coping compared to their Christian counterparts (N = 204). Across the whole sample, positive religious coping was inversely related to having a history of psychological disorders. Among the Muslim cohort, positive religious coping was inversely related to depressive symptoms and having a history of psychological disorders. Positive religious coping during infectious disease outbreaks may help some individuals reduce their risk of depressive illness. National pandemic preparedness plans may benefit from including a focus on religion and religious coping.
DOI Link
ISSN
Publisher
MDPI AG
Volume
11
Issue
10
First Page
1
Last Page
13
Disciplines
Medicine and Health Sciences
Keywords
Arab, Christian, COVID-19, Depression, Muslim, Religious coping, UAE
Scopus ID
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Thomas, Justin and Barbato, Mariapaola, "Positive religious coping and mental health among christians and muslims in response to the covid-19 pandemic" (2020). All Works. 2721.
https://zuscholars.zu.ac.ae/works/2721
Indexed in Scopus
yes
Open Access
yes
Open Access Type
Gold: This publication is openly available in an open access journal/series