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The Vigil: Religion and the Search for Control in the Hospital Waiting Room

Brenda Cole

Department of Psychology, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio

Larry Vandecreek

The Healthcare Chaplaincy, New York City, New York

Timothy Belavich

Rush-Presbyterian-St Luke's Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois

Curtis Brant

Department of Psychology, Baldwin Wallace College

Lisa Perez

Robert Taft Laboratories, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Cincinnati, Ohio

This study examined how religion is involved in achieving a sense of personal control in a situation that evokes feelings of distress and vulnerability. One hundred and fifty family members, waiting in the hospital while their relative underwent coronary artery bypass surgery, completed a survey about their methods of coping, event-specific outcomes, and adjustment (depression and anxiety). As predicted, religious methods of coping designed to achieve control predicted outcomes and adjustment beyond the effects of non-religious coping measures and traditional general measures of religiousness. A collaborative approach to religious coping, in which the individual shares the responsibility for coping with God, was particularly associated with better outcomes. However, the religious coping measures were also associated with higher self-reported levels of depression and anxiety. Exploratory path analyses suggested that anxiety and depression may be stressors in themselves, eliciting religious coping responses which, in turn, lead to specific outcomes. These findings underscore the practical and empirical value of a closer, more detailed analysis of the roles of religion in coping with uncontrollable life stressors.

Key Words: religion • coping • control • mental health • surgery

Journal of Health Psychology, Vol. 4, No. 3, 327-341 (1999)
DOI: 10.1177/135910539900400303


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