Jenn Ranter’s research while affiliated with Wheaton College - Massachusetts and other places

Objective: The purpose of this systematic review is to synthesize the existing empirical psychology of religion/spirituality (R/S) and disaster research and offer a prospectus for future research. Method: Searches were conducted in PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, Medline databases, and through personal communication with study authors covering a period from 1975 (from the earliest identified study meeting our criteria) to 2015. Studies that took an empirical approach to studying the impact of disasters on R/S phenomena, as well as the relationship between R/S phenomena, cognition, behavior, and well-being in disaster contexts were included. Results: A total of 51 articles met the inclusion criteria. We organized the empirical findings under five main categories, which emerged from sorting studies by their primary R/S focus: (a) general religiousness, (b) God representations, (c) religious appraisals, (d) R/S meaning making, and (e) religious coping. On the whole, R/S appears to generally lead to positive outcomes among disaster survivors. Results suggest positive benefits of R/S comes more from how one engages faith and access to resources via R/S communities. Conclusions: This review revealed several emerging patterns regarding what is known as well as existing gaps in the literature, including the need for more rigorous methodological designs and ongoing systematic programs of study. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

This qualitative study explored clergy perspectives on collaboration between clergy and mental health professionals in postdisaster contexts. A phenomenological methodology (Colaizzi, 1978) was employed to examine the perspectives of clergy first responders (N = 8) to the 2010 Upper Big Branch Mine disaster in rural West Virginia. Results revealed four conditions clergy thought would optimize collaboration between clergy and clinicians in postdisaster contexts: (a) mutual respect, (b) preestablished professional relationships, (c) mental health professionals’ sensitivity to religious/spiritual issues, and (d) clergy members’ training in disaster spiritual and emotional care. Clergy responses also revealed three primary barriers to postdisaster collaboration with mental health professionals: (a) cultural mistrust and suspicion, (b) perceived ulterior motives, and (c) differences in service delivery expectations. We discuss these findings and their implications in light of the existing literature on clergy–clinician collaboration generally and on clergy–clinician collaboration in postdisaster and rural contexts specifically.

This cross-sectional study investigated psychological and religious/spiritual (R/S) outcomes following the 2015 South Carolina flood, with a focus on examining the roles of perceived social and religious support in predicting postdisaster outcomes. These findings suggest enhancing disaster survivors’ perceived social support may help protect them against mental health problems, and enhancing their perceived religious support may help promote their postdisaster R/S well-being and perceived posttraumatic R/S growth.