Editor-in-chief

Prof. Paul Sudnik

Munich University of Applied Sciences, Germany

As the Editor-in-Chief of IJSSH, I invite you to contribute your scholarly work to our esteemed publication. The journal publishes papers which focus on the advanced researches in the field of all aspects of social science and humanity. I'll endeavour to make this journal grow better and hopefully it will become a recognized journal among researchers and scholars in related fields.

Home> Archive> 2023> Volume 13 Number 6 ( Dec. 2023)
IJSSH 2023 Vol.13(6): 390-399
doi: 10.18178/ijssh.2023.V13.1176

Using Religious Symbols and Religious Teachings to Cope during Times of Adversity

Cristina Leira*, Frankie Lee*, James Smith, Jeffrey Quin, and June Maul

Abstract—This qualitative descriptive study explored how devout Catholics described how they used religious symbols and teachings to cope with personal challenges in southeastern Virginia in the United States of America. The sample included the faithful, who regularly used religious symbols and teachings and actively worshipped in a church building or remotely at least once a month. The theoretical foundation was the Symbolic Interactionism Theory (SIT). The instruments to collect the data included a questionnaire and an interview. The data collection incorporated demographics, descriptive statistics, and the descriptive data used in thematic analysis. The findings from this study provided insights into how the participants demonstrated the process of ascribing, understanding, and interpreting the meaning of using religious symbols and teachings in times of adversity. We found that using the sensory experiences had a significant impact on the participants to help them cope with personal challenges. Based on the findings, we suggested further studies to measure the effects of religious symbols and teachings and further explore the role of religiosity in mental health and psychological well-being, particularly the relationships between coping and the constructs as they are related to religiosity.

Index Terms—Adversity, coping, religiosity, symbols, teachings

Cristina Leira was with Grand Canyon University and is the President and CEO of KELP Consulting, USA
Frankie Lee is with Grand Canyon University, College of Doctoral Studies, Phoenix, AZ 85017, USA.
*Correspondence: Cleira@kelpcoachingplus.com (C.L.); Frankie.Lee@my.gcu.edu (F.L.)

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Cite: Cristina Leira*, Frankie Lee*, James Smith, Jeffrey Quin, and June Maul, "Using Religious Symbols and Religious Teachings to Cope during Times of Adversity," International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, vol. 13, no. 6, pp. 390-399, 2023.

Copyright © 2023 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).
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