Suffering with Christ: Emic christian coping and relation to well-being

Current measures of religious coping are generally etic in nature, measuring constructs across religions. Emic variables (i.e., those specific to particular religions) often left out, which limits our ability assess religious/spiritual during times stress and adversity. Here we provide findings from three studies conducted develop test an emic Christian meaning-making method: identifying with Christ his suffering. We ground this construct theology, the psychology literature, existing qualitative research. In first study, developed items tested for clarity generalizability diverse groups using expert review cognitive interviewing participants five distinct groups. second exploratory factor analysis data MTurk (N ​= ​335), revealed a two-factor structure consistent theoretical formulation. third established stability validity Prolific ​355). Because conceptualize identification suffering as form coping, study also explored relationship measure well-being incremental analyses. found that predicted above beyond variance explained by measures. Collectively, these results highlight value