To examine religious and nonreligious coping methods among persons with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). To identify positive and negative religious coping methods and personal characteristics associated with them.
Persons with RA (n = 181) completed a religious coping questionnaire, 6 subscales from a nonreligious coping inventory, and a depression scale.
Religious and nonreligious coping were moderately correlated. The scores of all positive religious coping subscales were positively related to the importance persons attributed to religion. Scores of all negative religious coping subscales were positively associated with self-reported depressive symptoms.
Correlations of religious and nonreligious coping methods were neither completely independent of each other nor functionally redundant, suggesting that each made unique contributions to coping with RA. Persons with no (or few) depressive symptoms who reported that religion was important to them tended to make positive use of their religion as they coped with the emotional stress of RA. A significant number of self-reported depressive symptoms were correlated with a negative use of religion.