Religion and spirituality as pathways to resilience: The role of positive coping and postmigration stress in displaced populations

Faith or spirituality may foster resilience among forcibly displaced individuals facing postmigration stress, including the loss of social networks, cultural adjustment, and uncertainty. Although prayer and community gatherings promote resilience, their role in building individual and community resilience under postmigration stress is less known. Forcibly displaced adults (N = 272) completed measures of positive religious coping, fate and destiny-related beliefs, and religious and spiritual struggles. Outcomes were individual and community resilience, with postmigration living difficulties examined as a moderator. Positive religious coping was associated with higher individual resilience, β = .15, p = .018, whereas higher religious struggles were associated with lower resilience, β = -.22, p = .001. Postmigration stress moderated the association between spiritual struggles and individual resilience, with the negative association between spiritual struggles and resilience weakening as postmigration stress increased. Both higher positive religious coping, β = .35, p < .001, and higher fate and destiny-related beliefs, β = .37, p < .001, were associated with higher community resilience. Higher postmigration stress was modestly associated with higher community resilience, β = .14, p = .015, but did not moderate observed associations. Taken together, spirituality serves as an important social and psychological resource for forcibly displaced individuals, fostering both individual and community resilience. Under higher postmigration stress, individuals adapt by relying on available coping mechanisms, mitigating the impact of religious struggles on resilience. Programs that promote culturally meaningful religious coping and shared spiritual practices may offer community-driven pathways to resilience for populations navigating forced displacement.