Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Semester of Degree Completion

2003

Thesis Director

Melanie Mills

Abstract

This study, which consists of two phases, explores the relationships between religion and coping with stress within the framework of interpersonal and intrapersonal communication. Both pastors and congregational members (n = 855) were surveyed about their perceptions of the role of religion in managing and coping with stress. A focus group involving five members of the clergy was implemented to conduct phase II of the research. This thesis examines how church relationships (i.e. with God, the pastor, and among congregational members) affect our abilities to function through stressful times. For phase I, a modified RCOPE survey (Pargament, Smith, Koenig, & Perez, 1998) was used to measure positive and negative patterns of religious coping methods. Positive strategies, identified as turning to God, during critical events and negative strategies were identified as turning away from God during times of crises. The positive patterns consisted of religious forgiveness, seeking spiritual support, collaborative religious coping, spiritual connection, religious purification, and benevolent religious reassessment. The negative patterns were defined by spiritual discontent, punishing God reassessments, interpersonal religious discontent, demonic reassessment, and reassessment of God's power. Results of the study revealed that individuals who have experienced some type of religious conversion and ministers made more use of the positive rather than the negative religious coping strategies. However, converts and ministers utilized both positive and negative religious coping strategies—e.g., Talking to God, Support, Punishment, and Expectancy Violation.

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