Religious coping and psychological functioning in a correctional population

The objective of this study was to examine main and interactive relationships between religious upbringing and coping (spirituality, participation, pleading, and discontentment), and mental health outcomes (depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, somatization, and hostility) among 305 incarcerated adults. Using hierarchical linear regression controlling for demographic variables and stressful life events, several significant relationships emerged. First, being raised with a formal religion was significantly predictive of both decreased depressive symptoms and reduced hostility. Second, there were significant interactions between religious discontentment and gender for all four outcomes, indicating that relationships between religious discontentment and depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, somatization and hostility were larger for females compared to males. Third, relationships between pleading and both depression symptoms and hostility were significantly moderated by stressful life events. And finally, there was a marginally significant relationship between religious pleading and increased somatization. These results are further described, and study limitations and implications are discussed.