A growing number of researchers are testing potential problematic forms of religiousness that denote anxieties regarding sacred matters. However, only a few studies have assessed how religious/spiritual struggle is associated with positive outcomes. Because people’s coping responses to stressors are key determinants of their well-being, we expected that different coping strategies could be potential mediators between religious problems/tensions and life satisfaction. The research was conducted on a group of 744 Roman Catholics. We used the Religious Comfort and Strain Scale, Satisfaction with Life Scale, and Brief Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced (COPE) questionnaire. The outcomes show that religious comfort correlated positively with life satisfaction, while fear/guilt, negative emotions toward God, and negative social interactions surrounding religion correlated negatively with life satisfaction. Our research amplifies the understanding of the religious/spiritual struggles and life satisfaction relationship, mediated by “secular” coping strategies. It confirms that both religious and secular methods of experiencing different strains seem to coexist with multiple other strategies in the context of broadly understood life satisfaction.

Based on the concepts of Huber’s centrality of religiosity as psychosocial resource, a non-experimental, moderated mediation project was designed in a group of 176 women and 84 men, who voluntarily participated in an online study, analysing the relationship between the prayer and the fears (for health, economy/finances, social life and family relations) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine the general tendency in dependencies between variables. Among the assessed components of religiousness crucial for alleviating the fears of the COVID-19 pandemic, two forms of prayer—Private Practice and Public Practice—turned out to be the most important. Private Practice seemed to appease the fears of threats to family and social relationships of persons assessed, while Public Practice was revealed as the predictor of intensifying of the general, summed up level of fears. The areas of health (illness threat) and financial security fears were not associated neither with prayer nor any other components of religiousness. It means a selective predictive associating of prayer with the appeasing of only specific types of fears, namely those of a social nature. The results obtained point to the importance of the addressed topic in the context of searching for psycho resources in coping with difficult situations and determining their impact.

Based on Huber’s centrality of religiosity concept, a non-experimental research project was designed in a group of 178 women and 72 men, voluntary participants in online studies, quarantined at home during the first weeks (the first wave) of the pandemic, to determine whether and to what extent religiosity, understood as a multidimensional construct, was a predictor of the worsening of PTSD and depression symptoms in the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study made use of CRS Huber’s scale to study the centrality of religiosity, Spitzer’s PHQ-9 to determine the severity of depression, and Weiss and Marmar’s IES-R to measure the symptoms of PTSD. Our study, which provided interesting and non-obvious insights into the relationship between the studied variables, did not fully explain the protective nature of religiosity in dealing with pandemic stress. Out of five components of religiosity understood in accordance with Huber’s concept (interest in religious issues, religious beliefs, prayer, religious experience, and cult), two turned out to contribute to modifications in the severity of psychopathological reactions of the respondents to stress caused by the pandemic during its first wave. A protective role was played by prayer, which inhibited the worsening of PTSD symptoms, whereas religious experience aggravated them. This means that in order to interpret the effect of religiosity on the mental functioning of the respondents in a time of crisis (the COVID-19 pandemic), we should not try to explain this effect in a simple and linear way, because religious life may not only bring security and solace, but also be a source of stress and an inner struggle.

Scientific achievements concerning the direct relation between personality traits and positive orientation among patients with multiple sclerosis do not explain the role of potential mediators. In fact, some researchers argue that the traits–positivity association is much more complex than it seems to be. For this reason, we made an attempt to analyze the indirect relationship between the above-mentioned variables, including meaning in life as a mediator. In total, 618 patients with MS took part in the study. The NEO Five-Factor Inventory, the Positive Orientation Scale, and the Meaning in Life Questionnaire were used. The results showed that positive orientation/the presence of meaning/searching for meaning correlated positively with extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness, and were negatively associated with neuroticism. Moreover, meaning in life in both its dimensions acted as a mediator in 9 of 10 models. It can be assumed that a propensity to establish interpersonal relationships (extraversion), use active imagination (openness), inspire confidence among others (agreeableness), and take responsibility (conscientiousness) can have an impact on someone’s positive attitude toward oneself and the surrounding world (positive orientation) when people have meaning in life and when they are seeking it.