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The Relationship between Religious Coping and Self-Care Behaviors in Iranian Medical Students

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Abstract

In recent years, researchers have identified that coping strategies are an important contributor to an individual’s life satisfaction and ability to manage stress. The positive relationship between religious copings, specifically, with physical and mental health has also been identified in some studies. Spirituality and religion have been discussed rigorously in research, but very few studies exist on religious coping. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between religious coping methods (i.e., positive and negative religious coping) and self-care behaviors in Iranian medical students. This study used a cross-sectional design of 335 randomly selected students from Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Iran. A data collection tool comprised of the standard questionnaire of religious coping methods and questionnaire of self-care behaviors assessment was utilized. Data were analyzed using a two-sample t test assuming equal variances. Adjusted linear regression was used to evaluate the independent association of religious copings with self-care. Adjusted linear regression model indicated an independent significant association between positive (b = 4.616, 95% CI 4.234–4.999) and negative (b = −3.726, 95% CI −4.311 to −3.141) religious coping with self-care behaviors. Findings showed a linear relationship between religious coping and self-care behaviors. Further research with larger sample sizes in diverse populations is recommended.

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Acknowledgements

Authors would like to express their gratitude for the cooperation of all students. This study is result of Research Project No. 44. The project was approved by Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences’ ethics committee, Sari, Iran.

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The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Nursing and Midwifery Amol, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran

    Hamid Sharif Nia

  2. Taylor’s Business School, Taylor’s University Malaysia, Subang Jaya, Malaysia

    Saeed Pahlevan Sharif

  3. Student Research Committee, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran

    Amir Hossein Goudarzian & Saman Jamali

  4. The Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

    Kelly A. Allen

  5. School of Nursing and Midwifery of Sari, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran

    Mohammad Ali Heydari Gorji

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  1. Hamid Sharif Nia
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  2. Saeed Pahlevan Sharif
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  3. Amir Hossein Goudarzian
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  4. Kelly A. Allen
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  5. Saman Jamali
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  6. Mohammad Ali Heydari Gorji
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Correspondence to Amir Hossein Goudarzian.

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The author(s) declared no potential conflict of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Sharif Nia, H., Pahlevan Sharif, S., Goudarzian, A.H. et al. The Relationship between Religious Coping and Self-Care Behaviors in Iranian Medical Students. J Relig Health 56, 2109–2117 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-017-0376-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-017-0376-2

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