Religious Coping, Stress, and Depressive Symptoms Among Adolescents: A Prospective Study

This study examined prospective associations between religious coping, stress, and depressive symptoms in a community sample of 111 adolescents (80 female). We hypothesized that religious coping would moderate the relationship between stress and depressive symptoms, with negative religious coping exacerbating the effects of stress on depressive symptoms and positive religious coping buffering the effects of stress on depressive symptoms. We further expected that the moderating effects of religious coping on outcomes would be strongest for youth with high personal religious commitment. Study hypotheses were tested in a prospective 12-week study. Youth self-reported their use of positive and negative religious coping strategies and personal religious commitment at baseline and then reported stressors and depressive symptoms weekly for eight weeks with an additional assessment at 12 weeks. Data were analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling. Results indicated that, as expected, negative religious coping significantly moderated the effects of stress on depressive symptoms across the 12-week study, with depressive symptoms being highest among youth with high stress exposure and high negative religious coping. The exacerbating effects of negative religious coping on the stress-depression relationship were strongest for youth with high personal religious commitment. Positive religious coping only marginally buffered the effects of stress on depressive symptoms. The results confirm and extend previous findings on the association between religious coping strategies and stress in predicting depressive symptoms.