Honours' thesis titled, "Stressful Experience? Where Do I Start?": Qualitative Inquiry of University Students' Religious Coping Strategies This research used semi-structured interviews and Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis to explore students’ coping strategies. Data analysis illustrates unique stressors described by the participants and the students’ different implicit reasons why they employed certain religious coping strategies. The findings developed a more comprehensive and detailed understanding about religious coping strategies among university students.

1. "Stressful Experience? Where Do I Start?"
Qualitative Inquiry of University Students'
Religious Coping Strategies
Presenter: Jeongeon Sim
Thesis supervisors: Stacey McHenry & Ulrich Teucher
University of Saskatchewan

2. 1
ICQI 2019 - Gregory 319, Fri #150
Spirituality & Religion
• Jeongeon Sim (a chairperson), Stacey McHenry, Ulrich Teucher
• Beth Coleman & Cinthya Saavedra

3. “
Were you ever stressed out as a university student?
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4. “
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University Students’ Unique Stressors:
Transition to university, academic stress,
socializing, financial struggle
(Hamaider, 2009; Thawabieh & Qaisy, 2012)

5. 5
Literature Review
1) Religious coping strategy
• Coping with a religious dimension when religion is ‘available and
accessible’ (Harrison et al., 2001):
• e.g., “talking” to God found to be helpful in reducing stress (LaBarbera &
Hetzel, 2016)

6. “
Lord Ganesh, he’s the mover of obstacles.
So I pray that I’ll have strength and courage to face
whatever problem I have when I’m chanting his name.
- Hindu participant F
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how_file.php?id=13525772419868

7. “
When I’m in a valley they might be in a mountain… But the fact that
people would actually come down from whatever the mountain
they were and sit in the valley with me? That was really meaningful.
And that really showcases God’s love to me.
- Christian participant A
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8. 8
Literature Review
2) Lack of studies about religious student’s coping strategy
• Most studies focus on clinical patients in Christian context (Denney, Aten, &
Leavell, 2011; Choudhry, Park, Golden, & Bokharey, 2017)
• Most studies are quantitative (Brewster, Velez, Foster, Esposito, & Robinson, 2016; Chan & Rhodes,
2013)
• Relevant qualitative studies often do not involve Hindu coping
strategies

9. “
• How do Christian and Hindu university students describe their stressful lives?
• How did their religious coping strategies help them to cope?
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10. Methodology and Method
Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA)
• A phenomenon in individual stories & one’s own meanings of lived experiences
• Double hermeneutic: “The participants are trying to make sense of their world;
the researcher is trying to make sense of the participants trying to make sense
of their world.” (Smith, 2015)
Procedure: Recruitment→ A Letter of Invitation→ Consent Form→ Demographic
Form→ Semi-structured interviews→ Debriefing→ Transcript Release Form
Data Analysis: Descriptive & Conceptual (interrogative) comment (Smith, 2015)
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11. Methodology and Method
Religion Age Gender Undergraduate/graduate student
A Christian 22 Female Undergraduate, 4 years
B Christian 20 Female Undergraduate, 3 years
C Christian 20 Female Undergraduate
D Hindu 20 Female Undergraduate, 3 years
E Hindu 24 Male Graduate, less than a year
F Hindu 21 Female Undergraduate, 4 years
Participants’ Demographic Information

12. Results
1) Religious University Students’ Experiences with Stress
• Unique experiences of stress in university context
o “I shouldn’t be having fun. So, throughout the whole Christmas time I locked
myself in my room and I cried at night until I fall asleep because I couldn’t fall
asleep…”
• Positive aspect of the past stressful experience
o “I’m thankful that I got to learn about myself is that
I have a lot of people around me. I have God.
I don’t have to do this alone.”
o “When I’m stressed, I get my work done.”
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13. Results
2) Hindu & Christian Religious Coping Strategies…
∙ …To achieve the same goal of “feeling better”
• “I feel like God is my number one therapist.”
• “It just feels good.”
∙ …With similar and different types of motivation
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“I should mention that the fact that my mom
passed away is not just like God
speaking to me, it’s also mom speaking
to me.”
“I see prayer as communicating with God.
So, I do that regularly… just like with any
other healthy relationships.”
“It’s something that my mom’s doing
ever since. (…) I’m practicing my
religion, I’m getting in touch with my
culture and I’m not losing it”
“Karma is a big thing in my life.”

14. Discussion and Conclusion
Limitation and strength
 Not inclusive of other religious
groups, and non-religious students
and male students
 IPA uses both idiographic and
contextual analyses to understand
the cultural factors of the
experiences (Smith et al., 2009)
Conclusion
 Expands knowledge with a specific
sample
 Possible applications for “real-life”
situations
 Inclusive attitude toward fellow
students encouraged
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15. THANK
YOU!
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sana_meditation.jpg
Ano, G. G., & Vasconcelles, E. B. (2005). Religious coping and psychological adjustment to stress: A meta-analysis. Journal of
Clinical Psychology, 61(4), 461-480. doi:10.1002/jclp.20049
Brewster, M. E., Velez, B. L., Foster, A., Esposito, J., & Robinson, M. A. (2016). Minority stress and the moderating role of
religious coping among religious and spiritual sexual minority individuals. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 63(1), 119-126.
doi:10.1037/cou0000121
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Hamaider, S. H. (2009). Stressors and reactions to stressors among university students. International Journal of Social
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