How do People Approach God during Stressful life Situations: an Empirical Exploration

Abstract

The current trend in dealing with stress has been shifted towards the inclination of individuals to turn before God for experiencing relational comfort and benefits. Empirical evidences have demonstrated the vital impact of religious coping in reducing distress and remorse. The aim of this study is to examine how a person uses to approach God for managing stress. The sample of the study comprised of 53 Muslim Adults with the age range of 20 to 30 years (M= 22.8, SD=1.77). It was a qualitative exploratory study incorporating semi structured interviews in which participants were asked that what particular styles they take on for approaching God for dealing with stress. Major stressors were identified as health issues, death traumas, professional or work related problems, relational clashes and financial losses. In content analysis four major styles of approaching God were found to be(i)visualizing God’s names 35%, (ii)memorizing Quranic Verses 28%, (iii)reciting Quranic Chapters 23%, (iv)performing rituals and practices 71%. Such religious efforts bring the feelings of being connected to God, supporting individuals for dealing effectively with life stressors. Subjective self-reporting nature of data and lack of standardized measures are the limitations of the study. The findings have practical implications in a way that it can be adopted for assisting individuals with mental health problems as well as for enhancing the worth of spiritual experiences.