The pain and gain of religious/spiritual struggles: a longitudinal study of South African adults

We used two waves of longitudinal data from a sample of South Africans (n = 274) to examine whether religious/spiritual (R/S) struggles following an interpersonal transgression might lead to both pain (i.e., depression) and gain (i.e., perceived posttraumatic growth) six months later. We also explored the role of positive R/S coping in modifying each of these associations. After adjusting for a variety of covariates and prior values of the respective outcome assessed at baseline, the results indicated that R/S struggles were associated with a small increase in depression and perceived posttraumatic growth six months later. Positive R/S coping moderated the association between R/S struggles and perceived posttraumatic growth (but not depression), with R/S struggles yielding a stronger positive association with perceived posttraumatic growth at lower levels of positive R/S coping. We discuss some implications of our findings for supporting people who encounter R/S struggles in the aftermath of interpersonal transgressions.