Associations Between Religious Coping and Long-Term Mental Health in Survivors of Hurricane Katrina

Weather-related disasters are increasing in both frequency and severity, which in turn increases the likelihood for the development of adverse mental health outcomes (Augustinavicius et al., 2021; CRED & UNDRR, 2015; NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, 2020). Religion and spirituality are an accessible form of coping that many people turn to during and after weather-related disasters and may be especially valuable to survivors who face barriers to accessing mental health treatment or may not feel served by formal mental health institutions (Abu-Raiya & Pargament, 2015; Bryant-Davis & Wong, 2013). Researchers have drawn distinctions between positive religious coping (PRC) and negative religious coping (NRC), both conceptually and in their relation to mental health outcomes (Pargament et al., 2011). This study utilized data from the Resilience in Survivors of Katrina project, an ongoing longitudinal study of low-income, female, primarily Black Hurricane Katrina survivors, and drew on four waves of data from before the hurricane in 2005 through 2018 to explore the longitudinal relationship between religious coping and mental health outcomes. Multiple linear regression analyses revealed that NRC was a significant predictor of posttraumatic stress, b = .14, p < .05, whereas PRC was a significant predictor of posttraumatic growth, b = .22, p < .01. Future research should further examine associations between religious coping styles and later well-being as well as strategies for beneficial outcomes.