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Religious/Spiritual Struggles and Depression During COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdowns in the Global South: Evidence of Moderation by Positive Religious Coping and Hope

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Laura Captari at Boston University
Laura Captari
Richard G. Cowden
Richard G. Cowden
Richard G. Cowden
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Steven j. Sandage at Boston University
Steven j. Sandage
Edward Britt Davis at Wheaton College Illinois
Edward Britt Davis
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Abstract

Physical and existential threats stemming from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may provoke religious/spiritual (R/S) struggles or exacerbate preexisting angst and questions. In the Global South, where pervasive social–structural disadvantages limit resource availability to mitigate psychosocial consequences, doubts about divine presence and purpose amidst suffering, loss, and uncertainty may be especially salient factors in spiritual and mental health. With two independent samples of Colombians and South Africans recruited during an early phase of lockdown in each country, the current set of studies (N Study 1 = 1,172; N Study 2 = 451) examined positive religious coping (Study 1) and state hope (Study 2) as potential resources that may support the mental health of people living in the Global South who experienced R/S struggles during the public health crisis. Results of hierarchical regression analyses across both studies revealed that R/S struggles were positively associated with depression. In Study 1, there was a two-way interaction between R/S struggles and positive religious coping, such that the relation between R/S struggles and depression was attenuated when positive religious coping was higher for both men and women. In Study 2, a three-way interaction emerged among R/S struggles, state hope, and gender; R/S struggles were associated with higher levels of depression when state hope was low in women and when state hope was high in men. We discuss the implications of these findings for promoting psychological and spiritual well-being in low- and middle-income countries during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Religious/Spiritual Struggles and Depression During COVID-19 Pandemic
Lockdowns in the Global South: Evidence of Moderation by Positive
Religious Coping and Hope
Laura E. Captari
1
, Richard G. Cowden
2
, Steven J. Sandage
1
, Edward B. Davis
3
, Andrea Ortega Bechara
4
,
Shaun Joynt
5
, and Victor Counted
6
1
The Albert and Jessie Danielsen Institute, Boston University
2
Human Flourishing Program, Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Harvard University
3
School of Psychology, Counseling, and Family Therapy, Wheaton College
4
Department of Psychology, Universidad del Sinú
5
Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of the Free State
6
School of Psychology and Counseling, Regent University
Physical and existential threats stemming from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may
provoke religious/spiritual (R/S) struggles or exacerbate preexisting angst and questions. In the Global
South, where pervasive social–structural disadvantages limit resource availability to mitigate psychosocial
consequences, doubts about divine presence and purpose amidst suffering, loss, and uncertainty may be
especially salient factors in spiritual and mental health. With two independent samples of Colombians and
South Africans recruited during an early phase of lockdown in each country, the current set of studies (N
Study 1 =1,172; NStudy 2 =451) examined positive religious coping (Study 1) and state hope (Study 2) as
potential resources that may support the mental health of people living in the Global South who experienced
R/S struggles during the public health crisis. Results of hierarchical regression analyses across both studies
revealed that R/S struggles were positively associated with depression. In Study 1, there was a two-way
interaction between R/S struggles and positive religious coping, such that the relation between R/S struggles
and depression was attenuated when positive religious coping was higher for both men and women.
In Study 2, a three-way interaction emerged among R/S struggles, state hope, and gender; R/S struggles
were associated with higher levels of depression when state hope was low in women and when state hope
was high in men. We discuss the implications of these findings for promoting psychological and spiritual
well-being in low- and middle-income countries during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Keywords: spiritual struggles, religious coping, psychological distress, well-being, resilience
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-
CoV-2) outbreak has upended daily life, revealing the existential
threats of illness and mortality, the tenuous nature of societal norms,
and the limitations of human control (Fore, 2020). Unlike natural
disasters that impact a localized region during a finite time, the
coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has wreaked
havoc on a global scale. As of April 2022, there have been more
than 494 million confirmed cases and over 6.1 million COVID-
related deaths worldwide (World Health Organization [WHO],
2022). Widespread economic shutdown and mandated physical
isolation further contribute to the toll of the public health crisis,
occasioning secondary losses (e.g., food and housing insecurity,
restricted access to social and spiritual support).
While the pandemic has had global reach, its consequences vary
considerably by local and regional context. In economically vulner-
able countries within the Global South, preexisting and pervasive
social–structural disadvantages (e.g., inadequate health systems,
high levels of unemployment, extreme poverty) have been magni-
fied by the public health crisis (United Nations, 2020). Relative to
Global North, the Global South often has fewer financial resources
and less social–structural capacity to support the health, economic,
and psychosocial needs of citizens. Against this backdrop, the
current studies examined the relation between religious/spiritual
(R/S) struggles and depression during the early lockdown phase of
the pandemic in Colombia and South Africa—two countries within
the Global South.
Religious/Spiritual Struggles During the COVID-19
Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has set in motion a variety of physical
and existential stressors that may interfere with goals, disrupt
assumptions about the world, challenge theodicies, and violate
religious aspects of individuals’meaning systems. When discre-
pancies arise between one’s global meaning system and appraised
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
This article was published Online First May 5, 2022.
Laura E. Captari https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1188-2462
Richard G. Cowden https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9027-4253
Edward B. Davis https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4409-7759
Shaun Joynt https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1966-6633
Victor Counted https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0944-3775
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Laura E.
Captari, The Albert and Jessie Danielsen Institute, Boston University,
185 Bay State Road, Boston, MA 02215, United States. Email:
lcaptari@bu.edu
Psychology of Religion and Spirituality
© 2022 American Psychological Association 2022, Vol. 14, No. 3, 325–337
ISSN: 1941-1022 https://doi.org/10.1037/rel0000474
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... The results indicated that PRC (RI = 0.50, NI = 100%) was the most important exogenous variable in predicting flourishing. Figure 2 determined that religious coping contributed to well-being by reducing the sense of meaninglessness, which is one of the most important predictors of depression, and many negative accompanying emotions (Captari et al., 2022;Desmet et al., 2022;Francis et al., 2019). These findings are consistent with meta-analyses and other studies that involved diverse participant groups (Klaassen et al., 2007). ...
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