Trauma and well-being in colombian disaster contexts: effects of religious coping, forgivingness, and hope

ABSTRACT

These two cross-sectional studies examined whether trauma impacts disaster survivors’ psychological well-being through its influence on positive and negative religious coping and on dispositional forgivingness and hope. Colombia was selected because it is a highly religious country that has endured a protracted armed conflict (1964-present) and recent, devastating natural disaster (2017 Mocoa landslide). Study 1 focused on 272 conflict survivors in Monteria; Study 2 focused on 1,651 landslide survivors. All participants completed Spanish versions of the PTSD CheckList-5, Kessler-10, Brief RCOPE, Trait Forgivingness Scale, Herth Hope Index, and Positive Psychotherapy Inventory. In Study 1, survivors’ trauma contributed to greater negative religious coping, then to lower dispositional forgivingness and hope, and ultimately to lower well-being. Study 2 results replicated this finding and also revealed evidence that survivors’ trauma contributed to higher positive religious coping, then greater dispositional forgivingness and hope, and ultimately better well-being. Implications for disaster research and practice are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Disasters
• trauma
• religious coping
• forgivingness
• hope
• psychological well-being
• structural equation modeling (SEM)

Acknowledgments

The data collection was possible thanks to the support from Universidad del Sinú and Instituto de Ciencias de la Felicidad Florecer, to the logistical assistance by the firm Aliadas por el Progreso who provided trained psychologists and social workers on the ground, helped granting access to sites, provided groceries for the raffles and let us use their power plant. Our thanks go to Gloria Orduz, head of the Psychology Department and Jonathan Pérez Soto, Andres Benavides and Diana Zurita of the Welfare Department, both at Universidad del Sinú, Montería; to the heads of the community action boards of the different neighborhoods of Mocoa, to the Secretary of Health of Mocoa, and to the entities in charge of the shelters (National Police, National Army, National Risk Management Unit and Red Cross).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.