Religious Coping, Posttraumatic Stress, Psychological Distress, and Posttraumatic Growth Among Female Survivors Four Years After

Positive and negative religious coping strategies and their relation with posttraumatic stress (PTS), psychological distress, and posttraumatic growth (PTG) were examined in the context of Hurricane Katrina. Positive religious coping was hypothesized to be associated with PTG, whereas negative religious coping was hypothesized to be associated with PTS and psychological distress. Low-income mothers (N = 386, mean age = 25.4 years, SD = 4.43) were surveyed before, and 1 and 4 years after the storm. Results from structural regression modeling indicated that negative religious coping was associated with psychological distress, but not PTS. Positive religious coping was associated with PTG. Further analysis indicated significant indirect effects of pre- and postdisaster religiousness on postdisaster PTG through positive religious coping. Findings underscore the positive and negative effect of religious variables in the context of a natural disaster. Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath have had both short-and long-term impact on survivors ’ mental health (e.g., Galea et al., 2007; Paxon, Rhodes, Waters, & Fussell, 2012). Al-though pervasive, the impact of natural disasters on psycho-logical functioning is neither consistent nor inevitable (Norris et al., 2002). Researchers have identified a range of protec-tive factors and coping strategies that may help attenuate the psychological impact of natural disasters (Acierno, Ruggiero, Kilpatrick, Resnick, & Galea, 2006; Bokszczanin, 2008), in-cluding personal faith and involvement in religious communi