Religious strain and postconventional religiousness in trauma survivors

Abstract

Postconventional religious reasoning has been one of the best defined indicators of spiritual/religious development in the literature. Several theorists have suggested that postconventional religiousness emerges only after individuals confront challenges to their spiritual beliefs and assumptions. To investigate this idea, we studied postconventional spiritual/religious development among trauma survivors in an attempt to identify the types of religious challenges most relevant to the development of postconventional religiousness. Individuals who experienced: (a) more total trauma exposure, (b) more religious rifts with others in their faith group or family, (c) lower levels of religious fear and guilt, and (d) lower levels of religious comfort reported higher levels of postconventional religiousness.