Religious coping, perceived discrimination, and posttraumatic growth in an international sample of forcibly displaced Muslims
Open accessAbstract
Displaced persons are exposed to trauma and experience posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTS). Many displaced Muslims come from communities that rely on religious practices to cope with traumatic experiences, and religious coping has been identified as predictive of posttraumatic growth (PTG). Discrimination may contribute to increased PTS and promote in-group identification. In this study, we hypothesized that perceived discrimination would enhance the relationship between religious coping and PTG. Results indicated that religious coping predicted PTG, but the overall interaction with discrimination was not significant. However, probing moderating effects at discrete levels of discrimination yielded enhanced relationship between religious coping and PTG at its mean and above until reaching the highest values of discrimination. For individuals who experience moderate to high levels of discrimination, religious coping increased PTG. These findings highlight the essential role of religious coping in promoting growth for many Muslims exposed to forced migration and elevated levels of discrimination.
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“Across several studies, religious coping has strongly predicted posttraumatic growth with a large effect size (Prati & Pietrantoni, 2009).”
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“A recent meta-analysis of 26 studies reported that around 53% of individuals who have experienced traumatic events reported experiencing at least moderate PTG afterward (Wu et al., 2019).”
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Pop, V., Williamson, C., Khan, R., Leightley, D., Fear, N. T., & Dyball, D. (2025) · European Journal of Psychotraumatology · doi:10.1080/20008066.2025.2500885 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
“…such as positive refocusing, acceptance, putting into perspective and positive reappraisal, were investigated in eight studies (Acar et al., 2021; Ai et al., 2007; Al Beainy & Hassan, 2023; Alsubaie et al., 2021; Eze et al., 2022; Hussain & Bhushan, 2011; Kira et al., 2019; Stasielo-wicz, 2022).”
Influential
- Authors
- Alsubaie, M. K., Dolezal, M., Sheikh, I. S., Rosencrans, P., Walker, R. S., Zoellner, L. A., & Bentley, J.
- Affiliations
- Seattle Pacific University (US)
- Georgia State University (US)
- University of Washington (US)
- Corresponding author
- Alsubaie, Mohammed K.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Mental Health, Religion & Culture
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2021-10-21
- Volume
- 24
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 976-992
- ISSN
- 1367-4676 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-9737
- PMC
- PMC9937443
- OpenAlex
- W3209351208
- Cited by
- 28
- References
- 8
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 2
- FWCI
- 2.21
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Mental Health Religion & Culture (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- University of Washington
- National Institute of Mental Health (R34MH112756)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Health › Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Migration, Health and Trauma
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
- Keywords
- religious coping, perceived discrimination, posttraumatic growth, forced displacement, Muslims, forced migration, posttraumatic stress symptoms, ingroup identification
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