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This study examined the association between strength of religious faith and coping with the terrorist attacks in New York City, Washington DC, and Pennsylvania ...
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C 2004) Pastoral Psychology, Vol. 52, No. 3, January 2004 (°

The Association Between Strength of Religious Faith and Coping with American Terrorism Regarding the Events of September 11, 2001 Thomas G. Plante1,3 and Erika L. Canchola2

This study examined the association between strength of religious faith and coping with the terrorist attacks in New York City, Washington DC, and Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001, the resulting war in Afghanistan, and subsequent anthrax attacks. The participants included 97 students from a West Coast Catholic university. Measures included the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire, the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale, the Symptom Check List-90-Revised, the Impact of Event Scale, a 10-point stress, coping, and importance of faith scale, and an author-developed questionnaire assessing demographic as well as qualitative questions regarding coping with terrorism. Results suggest that strength of religious faith was not associated with coping with terrorism. KEY WORDS: religious faith; stress; coping; terrorism.

INTRODUCTION On September 11, 2001, the United States was stunned by the terrorist attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center towers, severely damaged the Pentagon, and destroyed four commercial airplanes along with all of their passengers and crew members. Approximately 3,200 people were killed. Although there have been many more fatal incidents (e.g., earthquakes, hurricanes) in recent years where the loss of life has been greater, these terrorist attacks, along with the subsequent bio-terrorism and the war in Afghanistan, have created a great deal of stress and strain in the minds of world citizens (Ruby, 2002). For example, following the 1 Thomas

G. Plante, is Professor of Psychology at Santa Clara University, California. L. Canchola is a psychology student at Santa Clara University, California. 3 Address correspondence to Thomas G. Plante, Ph.D., ABPP, Psychology Department, 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA 95053-0333; e-mail: [email protected]. 2 Erika

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terrorist attacks, American residents scurried to buy emergency and survival supplies (e.g., gas masks), fearing another terrorist strike (Bazel & Schwanhausser, 2001). European countries, such as Italy, France, Germany, Britain, and Spain were anxious, fearing an assault in their own countries since terrorists were able to successfully hit a world superpower like the United States (Miller, 2001). A survey conducted on the second week of October 2001 resulted in preliminary descriptive data that found an increase of generalized fear, hypervigilance, anxiety or uncertainty about the future, and other negative emotional consequences among clients seeking psychological services (American Psychological Association, 2001). Part of the reason that terrorism has devastated U.S. citizens is because terrorism is intended to create an extremely fearful state of mind in an audience that may or may not have a relationship to the victims. It is reasonable to assume that religious coping is vital to many during and following these tragic events. After all, 80% of the world’s population belongs to one particular religious tradition or another (Bernstein et al., 1995). Furthermore, there has been a great deal of research demonstrating that religious faith can play a positive role in coping with emotional problems such as depression and anxiety (Plante & Sherman, 2001). Recent research has suggested that religiosity is associated with decreasing levels of depression (Catipovic, Ilakovac, Durjancek, & Amidzc, 1995; Cosar, Kocal, Arikan, & Isik, 1997; Plante & Boccaccini, 1997). For example, Richards and Bergin (2000) found that depression was less likely among religious individuals with medical illness or religious surgical patients compared with less religious individuals in the same situations. Thearle, Vance, Najman, Embelton, and Foster (1995) found similar results among parents grieving the death of a child. Bickel et al. (1998) examined how particular styles of religious coping, when used in high-stress conditions, would either increase or decrease depressive affect. Participants included 245 adult members of Presbyterian churches. One of the measures administered was the Religious Coping Styles Questionnaire (Pargament et al., 1988), which proposed three religious coping styles: self-directing, collaborative, and deferring. The results indicated that when a person uses the self-directing style of coping, that is, solving their own problems without the help of God, they experience more depressive affect. In using the collaborative style of coping, which focuses on the person and God both working together to solve problems, it was found that an individual experiences less depressive affect. Other research focusing on the relationship between religious faith and anxiety found that religious and spiritual involvement among people experiencing high levels of stress are significantly associated with lower levels of anxiety (Holtz, 1998). However, it was also found that religious faith can contribute to anxiety symptoms (Shooka, Al-Haddad, & Raees, 1998; Trenholm, Trent, & Compton, 1998). Those individuals whose anxiety is positively associated with religious faith were found to have been raised with strict religious upbringings and among religious individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorders (Shooka et al., 1998).

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Using the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire, Plante and Boccaccini (1997) found that college students with high strength of religious faith experienced higher self-esteem, hope, adaptive coping, and less interpersonal sensitivity. Ellison (1991) also found that individuals with strong religious faith reported higher self-esteem, greater personal happiness, and fewer negative consequences from traumatic life experiences. In a study conducted to examine the level of stress experienced by a segment of the American public at the onset of the Persian Gulf War (Plante & Manuel, 1992), it was found that those who reported a strong religious faith were more likely to experience intrusion as a symptom of their subjective distress. However, the strength of religious faith was not associated with their war-related stress. In another study, religious coping was not associated with the management of daily hassles among college students (Plante, Saucedo, & Rice, 2001). In a study that examined the psychosocial stress factors and coping strategies experienced by Salvadoran immigrants to the United States, religiousness was associated with the adaptive coping mechanism in dealing with their assimilation stress (Plante, Manuel, Menendez, & Marcotte, 1995). Although experiencing significant degrees of general stress, few of the subjects in this study reported feelings of loneliness. This could indicate that a sense of community with other Salvadoran immigrants through church and community support acted as a protective mechanism to safeguard these participants from the isolation often experienced by new immigrants (Plante et al., 1995). Religious institutions tend to provide social support by creating a feeling of connectedness for individuals in the congregational community (Blaine & Croker, 1995). A more recent study examined stress, coping, faith, and health among a group of Bosnian refugees in the San Francisco Bay Area and a group of displaced Bosnian refugees in the area of Tuzla, Bosnia (Plante, Simicic, Anderson, & Manuel, 2002). Curiously, unlike Salvadoran immigrants (Plante et al., 1995), religious faith did not appear to be associated with better self-reported coping among those Bosnian refugees. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the stress and coping of a sample of West Coast college students regarding the terrorist attacks and subsequent threats to the events of September 11, 2001. We were especially interested in the role religious faith would play in coping with these events.

METHOD Participants The sample consisted of 97 undergraduate students (14 males and 83 females) from a private West Coast Catholic university. The ages of the sample ranged from 17 to 21 years (M = 18.44, SD = .78). Within the sample, 65% reported being

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Catholic, 14% reported no religious affiliation, 9% reported being Christian, 4% reported being agnostic, 3% reported other, 2% reported being Jewish, and 2% reported being Lutheran. At the university from which the sample was taken, a student was killed in the terrorist attacks. She was a passenger on Flight 93 that was headed for San Francisco but crashed 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, near Jennerstown, Pennsylvania. Sixteen-and-a-half percent of the subjects indicated that they knew someone who died in the recent terrorist attacks. Within that percentage, 1% were very close to the deceased, 2% were moderately close, and 13% were not close. Fifteen-and-a-half percent of the subjects knew someone who is in the war region. Within that percentage, 3% were very close to the military personnel, 9% were moderately close, and 3% were not close. All participants received course credit from their introductory psychology classes to participate in the study. Measures Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire (SCSORF; Plante & Boccaccini, 1997). The SCSORF questionnaire is a 10-item measure scored on a 4-point scale measuring strength of religious faith regardless of denomination (e.g., “I pray daily”). Research has found coefficient alphas between .94 and .95 and split-half reliability between .90 and .96. Pearson correlation coefficients indicated that high scores on the SCSORF were significantly correlated with intrinsic religiousness on the Age Universal Religious Orientation Scale (AUROS; Gorsuch & Venable, 1983), and with external and internal dimensions on the Religious Life Inventory (RLI; Batson & Ventis, 1982). Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (MC; Crowne & Marlowe, 1960). The MC is a 20-item, true-false measure of social desirability, or tendency to present oneself in a favorable light (e.g., “I have never intensely disliked anyone”). This is a widely used instrument with established internal consistency (Kuder-Richardson 21 = .75) and construct validity in diverse samples (Crowne & Marlowe, 1960; Strahan & Gerbasi, 1972). Symptom Check List-90-Revised (SCL-90-R; Derogatis, 1977). The SCL90-R consists of 90 items scored on a 5-point scale that reflect nine validated symptom dimensions. The anxiety and depression scales were used in the current study. Derogatis (1977) reports adequate reliability and validity. The Impact of Event Scale (IES; Horowitz, Wilner, & Alvarez, 1979) is a self-report measure of subjective distress associated with a specific event (i.e., the terrorist attacks associated with 9/11/01). The scale consists of 15 experiences of intrusion and avoidance subsequent to stressful life events and yields intrusion, avoidance, and total distress scores. Intrusion items reflect intrusive aspects of responding to a stressful event, such as unbidden thoughts or troubled dreams, whereas avoidance items reflect denial strategies, such as trying to forget the event or staying away from reminders of the experience.

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Author-Designed Questions. This questionnaire included items about the subjects’ age, gender, mental and physical health, personal relationship with people who died in the attacks, personal relationship with people involved with the military, religious affiliation, and attendance of a religious service during the past 7 days. Additional questions included a series of 10-point scale items measuring perceived stress, perceived coping, and strength of religious faith. Participants were also asked to describe their feelings about the recent terrorist attacks, the impact that they had on their lives, and how they tried to cope with the stress. Procedure Questionnaires were administered in a group session. Participants were first informed of the purpose of the study and assured of confidentiality. After signing the consent form, participants completed the series of questionnaires. The questionnaires were administered on November 6 and 12, 2001, which is approximately 8 weeks following the September 11th events. During this period, news regarding the war in Afghanistan and the aftermath of the September 11th attacks was still prevalent in the media. Communities were establishing anti-terrorism programs, and the nation’s economy, airlines, and postal offices were facing financial crises. A week before the first group of students were administered the questionnaires, Governor Gray Davis issued a warning about potential terrorist attacks on California’s suspension bridges in the Bay Area. During this time, the anthrax threats were also at their peak. By November 12, 2001, there were eleven anthrax-contaminated Senate suites and several anthrax-related deaths

RESULTS Mean and standard deviations were calculated on the study variables and are presented in Table 1. These results suggest that subjects were moderately stressed about the terrorist events on September 11, 2001 (M = 5.09, SD = 1.49), the current war in Afghanistan (M = 5.49, SD = 1.55), and anthrax and other bio-terrorism threats (M = 5.42, SD = 2.06). The group also reported that religious faith was moderately important to them at this time (M = 6.40, SD = 3.04). Overall, subjects reported stress-related symptoms that were moderate as evidenced by the SCL-90-R scores: anxiety (M = 10.51, SD = 6.71) and depression (M = 15.98, SD = 9.84). Subjects reported moderate levels of subjective distress on the IES (M = 19.44, SD = 12.04). Correlational results indicated that anxiety, measured by the SCL-90-R, was associated with stress regarding the terrorist attacks (r = .27, p < .01), the war in Afghanistan (r = .39, p < .01), and the bio-terrorism threats (r = .38, p < .01). Correlational results also indicated that the total IES score was associated with stress regarding the terrorist attacks (r = .32, p < .01), the war in Afghanistan

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Plante and Canchola Table 1. Means and Standard Deviations for Selected Variable Variable

M

SD

Age Perceived stress about terrorist attacksa Perceived stress about wara Perceived stress about bio-terrorisma Perceived copinga Importance of faith at this timea Strength of Religious Faith Impact of Life Event scales Intrusion Avoidance Total score SCL-90-R scales Anxiety Depression

18.44 5.09 5.49 5.42 7.49 6.40 27.04

0.78 1.49 1.55 2.06 1.66 3.04 8.44

9.91 9.54 19.44

6.94 7.19 12.04

10.51 15.28

6.71 9.84

on 10-point Likert-type questions where 1 = very relaxed, poor coping, and faith being not important and 10 = very stressed, excellent coping, and faith being very important.

a Based

(r = .34, p < .01), and the bio-terrorism threats (r = .29, p < .01). The total IES score was also associated with being worried about one’s own safety (r = −.33, p < .01), anxiety (r = .47, p < .01), and depression (r = .46, p < .01). Being personally connected to the events or someone in the war region was not found to be associated with the total IES score ( p ≥ .05 in all cases). Curiously, high scores on faith were found to be negatively correlated with how worried the subjects were regarding their safety (r = −.28, p < .01) and positively correlated with how stressed the subjects were regarding the terrorist attacks (r = .38, p < .01). High scores on the SCSORF were also found to be negatively correlated with worry about safety (r = −.26, p < .01) and positively correlated with stress about terrorist attacks (r = .32, p < .01). These results indicate that participants who reported greater religiousness were more likely to be worried about their safety and stressed about the terrorist attacks. When the defensiveness score, knowing someone who died in terrorist attacks, and knowing someone in the war region were entered into a multiple regression analysis where stress was the dependent variable, there was no significant effect (R = .24, R 2 = .06, p > .05). These variables only accounted for 6% of the variance in stress. When strength of faith was added to the regression analysis, a significant effect emerged (R = .34, R 2 = .12, p < .05), accounting for 12% of variance in stress. Although the overall equation resulted in a significant effect, there was a modest increase of 6% of the variance in stress when faith was added to the regression equation. When the same predictor variables were entered into a multiple regression analysis where perceived coping was the dependent variable, there was no

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significant effect (R = .26, R 2 = .07, p > .05). These variables only accounted for 7% of the variance in perceived coping. Using the same variables, with the addition of the SCSORF score, no significant effect emerged (R = .29, R 2 = .09, p > .05), accounting for 9% of the variance in perceived coping. Since there was only an increase of 2% of the variance in perceived coping, the variance was not significantly increased with the addition of strength of faith to the equation that included the defensiveness score, knowing someone who died in terrorist attacks, and knowing someone in the war region. When the scores from the defensiveness scale, knowing someone who died in terrorist attacks, knowing someone in the war region, the total Impact of Event Scale, anxiety, and depression were entered into a multiple regression analysis where stress was the dependent variable, a significant effect emerged (R = .54, R 2 = .29, p < .05), accounting for 29% of the variance in stress. Using the same variables, with the addition of the SCSORF score, there remained a significant effect (R = .55, R 2 = .31, p < .05), accounting for 31% of the variance associated with stress. With a 2% increase in variance, the addition of strength of faith to this equation did not greatly increase the accounted variance in stress. When the scores from the defensiveness scale, knowing someone who died in terrorist attacks, knowing someone in the war region, the Impact of Event scale, anxiety, and depression were entered into a multiple regression analysis where perceived coping was the dependent variable, there was a significant effect (R = .39, R 2 = .15, p < .05), accounting for 15% of the variance. When the SCSORF score was added to the equation, a significant effect remained (R = .39, R 2 = .15, p < .05), accounting for 15% of variance in perceived coping. The addition of strength of faith to the equation that included scores from the defensiveness scale, knowing someone who died in terrorist attacks, knowing someone in the war region, the Impact of Event scale, anxiety, and depression did not alter the variance associated with perceived coping. In the qualitative data obtained, 18 of the subjects (18.6%) reported feeling scared regarding the events that occurred on September 11th. Seventeen of the subjects (17.5%) felt detached from the situation for various reasons (e.g., did not know anyone involved or happened so far away). Sixteen of the participants (16.5%) were saddened by the events and 16 (16.5%) took the opportunity to express political sentiments (e.g., whether or not U.S. should bomb Afghanistan and who is to blame). Fifteen of the subjects (15.5%) reported that they were shocked regarding the September 11th events. Fourteen (14.4%) stated that they experienced disbelief (e.g., could not believe that such a tragedy could happen in the U.S.). Twelve participants (12.4%) felt a loss of safety after September 11th, 9 (9.3%) felt anger, and 8 (8.2%) decided not to take things (e.g., life, family, and friends) for granted. Regarding how they were coping with the stress from the September 11th events, 26 participants (27%) reported seeking information (e.g., watching news reports) and seeking social support (e.g., talking to family and

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friends). Overall, the majority of the participants (80%) sought social support to cope with the stress associated with the terrorism events that occurred on September 11, 2001. It is important to mention that a second sample of 32 participants consisting of young, working professionals in the Los Angeles area (11 males and 20 females) were also administered these questionnaires between the dates of October 30, 2001 and November 14, 2001. The ages in this sample ranged from 23 to 47 (M = 29.35, SD = 6.05). The results corresponded with those from the previous sample. In other words, faith did not significantly increase the variance of stress and coping after the predictor variables were entered into the regression equation. DISCUSSION Approximately eight weeks following the worst terrorist attack committed in the United States, the U.S. war in Afghanistan, ongoing bio-terrorism attacks, and a suspected threat on the suspension bridges located on the West Coast, a variety of stress, coping, and religious faith questionnaires were administered to West Coast college students. Results indicated a moderate level of stress with these events. Participants reported a range of sentiments, with the most pronounced being sadness, shock, disbelief, fear, a loss of security, and detachment. Self-report data indicated that participants relied more on social support to cope with the stress associated with the terrorism events of September 11, 2001 than on other sources of support. Both the Impact of Event Scale and the SCL-90-R indicated that stress levels in the current study were significantly less than those populations dealing with war-related stress and assimilation (Plante & Manuel, 1992; Plante et al., 1995, 2002). For example, while the average total IES intrusion scored in the current study was 19, average score among similar college students during the outbreak of the Persian Gulf war was 28 (Plante & Manuel, 1992). Total intrusion scores for Bosnian and Salvadoran immigrants were 38 and 42, respectively (Plante et al., 1995, 2002). While most of the previous research that has examined the relationship between major life stresses and religious faith has found that a strong religious faith is positively correlated with coping well, this study failed to do so. As it was found with coping with daily stress and hassles (Plante et al. 2001), it could be possible that the stress produced by the terrorist attacks, the war in Afghanistan, and the bio-terrorist threats may not be sufficiently stressful for these West Coast students to turn to religion to cope. Perhaps faith does not influence stress and coping unless the stressors are highly and personally significant, such as threats to one’s own life or the loss of a loved one. This may suggest that there is a fairly high threshold that must be attained before religious coping is activated. Curiously, our research suggests that those with greater religious faith were more likely to

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be more worried and stressed. These results correspond with previous research suggesting that religious faith might actually contribute to anxiety symptoms if the individual was raised with a strict religious upbringing and among religious individuals with obsessive-compulsive tendencies (Shooka et al., 1998). Of course, in this study, religious upbringing and obsessive-compulsive tendencies were not evaluated. Results must be viewed cautiously due to the number of limitations. First, we used a fairly small sample size (N = 97) and relied on self-report information to assess religiosity, stress, and coping. Although we measured and controlled for social desirability, self-report data has important limitations. Since our sample consisted of generally healthy female students from a West Coast Catholic university, the group was homogenous and does not represent the general population. Even with the second sample of Los Angeles residents corresponding with the results, that sample size was too small (n = 32) and homogenous. Future research should utilize a larger and more heterogeneous sample. There may be important differences associated with gender, age, and place of residence that could impact results. Extending the subject pool beyond a small Catholic university would be beneficial. Although 16.5% of the participants reported being saddened regarding the tragedy that took place on September 11, 2001, 17.5% reported feeling detached because it occurred so far away. A sample taken from the northeast part of the U.S. would most likely affect the stress and coping levels associated with the terrorist attacks. Future research should also consider the differences in religious upbringings and religious coping styles, since they have been found to impact levels of anxiety (Shooka et al., 1998) and depression (Bickel et al., 1998). To avoid the disadvantages of self-report measures, other measures such as a family member or significant others’ report could be used. In conclusion, our study found no association between the role of religious faith and coping with the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, the war in Afghanistan, and the bio-terrorist threats associated with the worst terrorism attack ever perpetuated on U.S. soil among college students in a West Coast Catholic university approximately eight weeks after the attacks. Future research in necessary to fully examine the role of faith in coping with terrorism. REFERENCES American Psychological Association. (2001). Survey helps portray the substantial impact of terrorism. Practitioner Update, 9(2), 2. Batson, C. D., & Ventis, W. L. (1982). The religious experience: A social-psychological perspective. New York: Oxford University Press. Bazel, M., & Schwanhausser, M. (2001, September 12). Locals rush to buy goods, many customers stock up on food, others, gas masks. The San Jose Mercury News, p. A19. Bernstein, E., Calhoun, D., Cegielksi, C., Latham, A., Shepherd, M.C., Sparks, K. J. et al. (1995). Perceived stress, religious coping styles, and depressive affect. Journal of Psychology and Christianity, 17, 33–34.

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