Wartime faith-based reactions among traumatized Kosovar and Bosnian refugees in the United States

Abstract

In William James' view, one function of prayer is a faith-based, conscious approach to a higher power when in distress. Accordingly, this study investigates the use of private prayer among Muslim war refugees from Kosovo and Bosnia (N = 138). Results show that these refugees were highly traumatized and most counted on private prayer for coping with their wartime difficulties. Four major types of prayer familiar to Americans were employed by roughly two-thirds to 86% of this sample. As expected, most types of prayer were associated with both wartime traumatic distress and greater religiousness. Also, 77% used prayer so that their enemies would “pay for what they have done.” However, this type of prayer was predicted only by higher levels of education and not by religiousness or traumatization. The need for examining the general and specific social contexts of prayer, such as war and terror, and prayer itself, perceived as a common human experience, are discussed. A structural equation model indicated that war-related trauma was associated directly only with negative religious coping but indirectly with positive coping, mediated by levels of emotional distress. Religiousness was related directly only to positive coping. These findings are discussed with respect to their theoretical and clinical implications.

Acknowledgments

This study is funded by the National Institute on Mental Health (NIMH) Grant, R24 MH56599. Amy Ai is also supported by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) Grant, P50 AT00011, the Templeton Foundation, the Hartford Foundation, and the Niwano Peace Foundation. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of these agencies. The authors gratefully acknowledge the contributions of Christopher Peterson, Minh Rafaela Prifti, Meri Traska, Borka Tomljenovie, Phung Ngo, David Ubelhor, Rudi Gjoni, Reverend and Chancellor Arthur E. Liolin, Reverend Nile Harper, Imam Vabhhi Ismael, Reverend Saundra Richardson, Sandi Rosso, Rachel Yoskowitz, Terry Walsh, and Dejan Dokic; World Relief (Seattle), Albanian Orthodox Church (Boston), Archdiocese of Detroit (Catholic), Episcopal Diocese (Detroit), Albanian Islamic Center (Detroit), Jewish Family Service (Southfield), Lutheran Social Services (Southfield), and Catholic Social System (Lansing).