Exploring the relationships between psychological wellbeing, religiosity and religious coping among post-primary school students in Ireland

This study explored the relationships between psychological wellbeing, religiosity and religious coping amongst adolescent students attending post-primary schools in Ireland. The current paper reports on the quantitative data and findings arising from a mixed-methods study. Participants were post-primary school students (N = 110) aged between 15 and 19 years, who completed online questionnaires measuring their psychological wellbeing, religiosity and religious coping. Correlation, comparative and regression analyses using SPSS were used to analyse the data. The results revealed that religiosity was not significantly correlated with psychological wellbeing; however, religious beliefs were a predictor of enhanced psychological wellbeing amongst theist participants. Positive religious coping methods were associated with enhanced purpose in life. Conversely, use of negative religious coping mechanisms was linked to lower levels of overall psychological wellbeing. The findings demonstrate that adolescents’ religion has the potential to impact their mental wellbeing positively or negatively, depending on the type of religious coping methods used.