Negative Religious Coping as a Mediator of Trauma Symptoms in Older Survivors

Forty-three spiritually distressed older women (aged 55-83) who had survived multiple types of interpersonal trauma participated in a spiritually focused group intervention designed to address spiritual struggles related to earlier abuse and to enhance spiritual coping. It was hypothesized that the intervention would increase spiritual well-being and that religious/spiritual coping would mediate the relationship between the intervention and the outcomes of depression, posttraumatic stress, anxiety, somatic symptoms, and spiritual well-being. The results provide strong initial support for the importance of understanding the effect of negative religious/spiritual coping on depression and anxiety symptoms in older religious survivors of interpersonal trauma.