Religious Coping, Resilience, and Military Spouse Mental Health

Abstract

Introduction Military spouses play a key role in the military family and contribute to military readiness. Despite their influence, they are an understudied population. Previous research has identified military spouses as a vulnerable group considering their unique life stressors and high mental distress; thus, it is critical to identify potential protective factors for military spouses. However, there is a lack of research exploring the role of religious coping and resilience in mental health outcomes of military spouses. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of religious coping on depression, anxiety, and stress, and the extent to which the effect is mediated by resilience. Materials and Methods A total of 1,079 military spouses completed self-administered surveys online. The questionnaires assessed demographic factors, depression, anxiety, stress, religious coping, and resilience. Zero-order correlations and descriptive statistics were analyzed. Additionally, multiple linear regression was utilized to investigate the extent to which resilience mediated the relationship between religious coping and mental health outcomes. Results The results indicate high levels of depression, anxiety, and stress among military spouses. Religious coping had significant effects on mental distress, such that increases in religious coping corresponded to decreases in depression (β = −3.30), anxiety (β = −1.89) and stress (β = −1.58). Mediation analyses indicated resilience significantly mediated the relationship between religious coping and depression (95% CI [−1.38, −.431]), anxiety (95% CI [−1.23, −.376]), and stress (95% CI [−1.328, −0.420]). For military spouses, religious coping was associated with increased resilience, which was subsequently associated with reduced mental distress. Conclusions This study draws attention to the role of religious coping and resilience in mental health outcomes for military spouses. Considering the role of military spouses in supporting service members, future research should explore how to strengthen military spouses’ religious coping and resilience to mitigate mental distress, thereby facilitating service member success and military readiness.