The role of personal and communal religiosity in the context of bereavement

Abstract

Religion and spirituality often become relevant after the death of a loved one. In light of the multidimensionality of religion and spirituality, we investigate the role of communal religiosity in predicting associations between personal religiosity and bereavement outcomes. A mixed-methods analysis of interviews and questionnaires from 33 bereaved adults was conducted. Interview mentions of personal and communal religiosity, and their associations with self-reported religious coping and grief symptoms, were assessed. Personal (β = 0.55, p < .01) and communal religiosity (β = 0.50, p < .01) predicted positive religious coping, as well as negative religious coping and grief severity (β = 0.53, p < .01). In addition, personal religiosity predicted more negative religious coping for participants who expressed low communal religiosity, β = 1.58, SE = .15, t(28) = 4.08, p < .001. After loss, personal religiosity by itself is not necessarily protective. The presence of personal and communal religiosity contributes to positive religious coping, and reduced negative religious coping. However, the absence of communal religiosity indicates vulnerability.

Keywords:

• Bereavement
• death
• grief
• loss
• religion
• religious coping
• spirituality

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no potential conflict of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The authors ensure that this article has not been submitted for publication or published elsewhere.

Notes

Notes

1 To assess for multi-collinearity we conducted a test for variance inflation in R: (VIF personal religiosity = 2.45; religious community = 2.13). This falls within bounds considered acceptable in the literature, but indicates some caution in interpreting the results of this analysis.

2 Statistically accounting for mobility, SES, and gender revealed a stronger interaction (β = .338, SE = 1.015, t(327) = 2.695, p = < .01).