(PS5-D95) Mental Health of Displaced Peoples: The Role of Religious Coping and Struggles

To date, approximately, around 100 million individuals have been forcibly displaced from their homes due to violence, persecution, or conflict (UN Refugee Agency, 2022). Forcibly displaced individuals have been found to have higher rates of mental illness as compared to nondisplaced individuals (Bhugra, 2004; Patanè, 2022). Religion has also been found to greatly influence the way that many displaced persons understand and conceptualize their symptoms of psychopathology (Bentley et al., 2021). Furthermore, integrating religion into trauma focused therapy has been found to lead to reduction of psychopathology in samples of displaced individuals (Bentley et al., 2020; Zoellner et al., 2021). Positive versus negative appraisal of religion have been found to have different relationships with symptoms of psychopathology. Positive religious coping has been associated with higher levels of psychological adjustment (Ano & Vasconcelles, 2005), while religious and spiritual struggles have been associated with worse psychological outcomes (Bockrath et al., 2022). In this study, the role of both positive religious coping and religious and spiritual struggles on symptoms of PTSD, depression, and generalized anxiety in a sample of forcibly displaced individuals were examined.  Displaced people individuals (N = 272) based on the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee definition (UN Refugee Agency, 2022). were recruited via Amazon MTURK (35.7% India, 22.0% United Kingdom, 9.1% Brazil) and completed self-report measures at baseline and at three month follow up (n = 94).  Higher religious and spiritual struggles were associated with higher PTSD symptoms (β = .34, p = 0.001), higher depression symptoms (β = .54, p < 0.001), and higher generalized anxiety symptoms (β = .38, p < 0.001), cross sectionally.  At three-month follow-up, higher baseline levels of religious and spiritual struggles were also associated with higher PTSD (β = .41, p < 0.001), depression (β = .38, p < 0.001), and generalized anxiety symptoms (β = .34, p = 0.001). Higher positive religious coping was associated only with higher levels of depressions symptoms cross-sectionally (β = .14, p = 0.008), but was not significantly associated with either PTSD or generalized anxiety symptoms cross-sectionally or longitudinally. Higher PTSD symptoms were related to higher perceived need for mental health services (β = .31, p < 0.001); higher use of positive religious coping was also related to higher perceived need for mental health symptoms (β = .28, p < 0.001). No clear association was found between spiritual and religious struggles and perceived need for mental health services. Taken together, the experience of religious struggles and the use religious coping by displaced persons to conceptualize and understand their experiences may be indicative of higher levels of psychopathology. Furthermore, displaced persons may turn to religious coping as a first line support for their mental health symptoms but still perceive the need for formal mental health services when experiencing more severe symptoms of psychopathology. Future research should investigate positive religious coping acts both as a mitigating factor and as an exacerbating factor for psychopathology.