Religious practices, prayer and recovery from trauma among Iraq/Afghanistan war veterans and a community sample

A sample of 111 veterans from the Iraq /Afghanistan wars, who considered themselves Christians, and a sample of 327 community church members were administered questionnaires regarding exposure to psychological trauma, recovery from trauma, and religious coping strategies. The measures included the Traumatic Life Events Questionnaire, the Trauma Symptoms Inventory, and the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory. Qualitative measures included questions about how religious beliefs were helpful, or made it more difficult to deal with trauma. A principal components factor analysis and multiple linear regression analysis of the community sample indentified 2 dimensions of religiosity. ”Seeking spiritual support” (39% of the variance), and “religious strain” (21% of the variance). They, respectively, predicted posttraumatic growth and higher trauma symptoms (Harris et al. 2008). Initial findings of a longitudinal study of the community group, and the veterans sample show a similar pattern. 53% of the veterans identified “combat” as their most significant trauma, while the community group identified “sudden death of a loved one” (29%) as theirs. A significantly greater number of the community sample (76%), compared to veteran (39%) indicated that that religion was helpful in dealing with trauma, while a significantly greater number of the community sample (32%) than the veteran (17%) said there were aspects of religion that made it more difficult. Prayer was mentioned more often by the community group as being helpful. About 2/3 of veterans described alienation from faith as making it more difficult to deal with the crisis. Intervention groups for veterans which address religious coping strategies, including prayer, are now being tested.