Verlies van een dierbare: Beschermt spiritualiteit tegen depressieve symptomen?

Abstract

The present study analysed the relative impact of religiosity on grief and depressive symptoms among students (N = 210) following the death of a loved one. A literature review was done to choose dimensions of religiosity which showed an impact on depression and grief in earlier studies. The authors developed a questionnaire to assess the religiousness and the degree of depressive and grief symptoms of the subjects. Use of regression analyses and MANOVA’s enabled assessment of the impact of the chosen religiosity dimensions. Religious coping had an effect on the depressive symptoms of the students who lost someone. Those who used more religious coping suffered more from depressive symptoms than those who didn’t use this kind of coping. Furthermore the results showed that students who are more spiritual have a lower degree of depressive symptoms. Theoretical implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.