Religious Coping and College Adjustment: A Study of an Elite Sample

This study sought to further explore the possible role of religious involvement on college adjustment. Religion was viewed as a multidimensional construct, assessed by means of the Religious Problem Solving Scales (RPSS) developed by Pargament et al. (1988). Nine different areas of adjustment were targeted with the College Adjustment Scales (CAS) developed by Anton and Reed (1991). Freshman honors students were assessed at the beginning and end of their first semester in college. Data analysis was conducted in three parts: the interscorer reliability of both the RPSS and CAS, the temporal stability of the RPSS, and the criterion-related validity of the RPSS correlated with the CAS. It was found that the Deferring coping style was directly related to problems in adjustment and that the Self-Directive coping style was negatively related to problems in adjustment