Social Support, Religious Coping, and Psychological Trauma in Flood Victims of Southern Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

The present study focused on the association between social support, religious coping, and psychological trauma in flood victims of southern Punjab, Pakistan. In this co- relational study, the sample consisted of 150 (83 men & 67 women) flood victims with ages 29-50 (M=36.79, SD=5.851), selected through a convenient sampling technique. These participants were selected from Rajanpur and DG Khan by directly visiting them. Measures included the demographic questionnaire, the Multidimensional scale of perceived social support (MSPSS; Zimet et al., 1988), Brief RCOPE (Pargament, 1998), and the Impact of an Event Scale-Revised (IES-R; Wiess & Marmar, 1997). Correlation analysis demonstrated that psychological trauma had a strong negative correlation with social support and increased psychological trauma was associated with decreased social support. Moreover, negative religious coping had a moderate positive correlation with psychological trauma. Stepwise regression analysis also indicated that social support emerged as a strong predictor, demonstrating a negative association with psychological trauma. In addition, positive religious coping also had a significant negative association with psychological trauma, albeit weaker than social support, and negative religious coping was found to have a significant positive association with psychological trauma. The current study suggested that in light of the findings and the importance of social support and religious coping for this population's rehabilitation, mental health practitioners should better target their therapies to meet flood victims’ unique requirements.