97: Positive Religious Coping as a Predictor for Improvement of Mental Health among University Students

Background and aims: Religious Coping is known as a main resource influencing for adjustment and managing appropriately the problems and stressors, that it seems to be an inseparable component in mental health literature in recent years. This study was carried out to investigate the religious Coping and mental health in the students of the Qom University of Medical Sciences. Methods: In this descriptive and analytical study, 138 students of the Qom University of Medical Sciences were selected via random sampling methods. These students completed the Brief religious Coping scale (RCOPE) and General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12). Data were analyzed in SPSS 16 software environment utilizing descriptive statistics and the Independent t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient and regression analysis. Results: Mean and standard deviations of religious coping wellbeing and mental health scores were 24.63±2.07 and 12.62 ±6.39. 47.8 percent of students have higher mean score in positive religious coping and the portion about negative religious coping was 48.5 percent. The results of multiple liner regression showed that positive religious Coping was significantly associated with general health (β=0.37; p=0.0001) related to the mental health component as well as controlling for demographic variables. There were no significant correlations between negative positive religious and psychological distress. Conclusion: The findings indicated that positive religious coping was associated significantly with better general health spatially mental health of students. Another word, positive religious Coping was respectively the most important factor for religious-spiritual components which may improve mental health in students.