The Adolescent Religious Coping Scale (ARCS): Development and initial validation

Although religious coping has been increasingly examined in adult populations, adolescent religious coping has for the most part been neglected. In the current study, a measure of adolescent religious coping with seven subscales (Positive God-Focused Coping, Seeking Religious Support, Constructive Distraction, Questioning, Avoidance, Denial, and Deferring) was developed. The seven religious coping subscales were found to group under two broader categories (active and passive). All three of the active religious coping subscales were positively associated with life satisfaction, and Positive God-Focused Coping was also negatively related to hopelessness. Two of the passive religious coping subscales (Questioning and Avoidance) were negatively associated with life satisfaction and positively associated with hopelessness, and the other two subscales (Denial and Deferring) were not related to psychological functioning. Of note, many of these findings were maintained even after controlling for age, gender, and religious attendance. Age differences in religious coping were also explored, with Positive God-Focused Coping, Constructive Distraction, and Denial showing decreases with age. Implications for further studies are discussed.