The Role of Spiritual Coping in Processing Grief among Younger Adults

Abstract

Spiritual coping plays an important function in influencing reactions of grief, specifically during youth, a stage of construction marked by individuality development, reorganizing of relations and strengthening of career. This review integrates present studies on the role of spiritual coping in processing grief among younger adults, showcasing its multifaceted view and mental impacts. Research envisions spiritual coping as including both positive coping, such as making sense of loss, finding solace in spiritualism, sustaining symbolic connection with the person who passed away, and negative coping, such as spiritual challenges, rage towards the divine and understanding of loss as suffering or leaving. Data indicates that participation in spiritual exercises may increase during periods of intense grief as younger adults try to restore their shaken outlook on life. Whilst, positive spiritual coping has been linked with adaptability, adversarial growth and accommodation, challenges with spirituality have been associated with increased mental stress and indications of depression. Constructive factors, capacity to emotionally regulate oneself and cultural background seem to influence the ways in which spiritual coping connects with grief during this period of life. However, there are important gaps in the literature, including restricted studies emphasizing particularly on the emerging adults, overdependence on prevalence studies, inadequate difference between positive and negative spiritual coping strategies and absence of multicultural cohort studies. Bridging these gaps is important for progression of conceptual precision and improvement. From a clinical perspective, the results highlight the necessity of evaluating spiritual coping in a subtle and culturally respectful way to promote flexible making sense of loss while also recognizing and dealing with stress about spirituality. In general, this review showcases the intricacy of spiritual coping in grieving in younger adults and emphasizes on the necessity for future research that is development-suitable and strict in its approach.