Religious Problem Solving and Coping with End Stage Renal Disease

This study examined the impact of end-stage renal disease life-related couple/family stressors and strains on marital satisfaction, parental satisfaction, life satisfaction, and depression on end-stage renal disease patients and their spouses, as well as quality of life for patients. Also, it examined the moderating effects of three styles of religious problem-solving on the relationship between the ESRD couple/family stressors and strains and the outcome variables. Data included a sample of two hundred subjects and their spouses. Subjects were recruited from seven dialysis centers in southern California. Both patients and spouses were given survey questionnaires (i.e. Personal History Inventory, Religious Problem-Solving Styles Scale, Family Inventory of Life Events and Changes Seale, Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale, Parental Satisfaction Scale, Beck Depression Inventory, Life Satisfaction Scale) that contained the variables to be assessed. Each patient received the Kidney Disease Quality of Life Short Form. Regression analysis outcomes showed that the collaborative religious problem-solving style, the self-directing religious problem-solving style and the deferring religious problem-solving style all moderated the relationship between ESRD life-related couple/family stressors and strains and outcome variables. Implications for research, theory, and practice were noted