Religious and Spiritual Coping Elements in Dealing with Chronic Diseases: A Qualitative Exploration of the Perspectives of Older Iranian Zoroastrians

Ahmadi, F., Khodayarifard, M., Zandi, S., Khorrami-Markani, A., Ghobari-Bonab, B., Sabzevari, M., & Ahmadi, N. (2018). Religion, culture and illness: A sociological study on religious coping in Iran. Mental Health, Religion and Culture, 21(7), 721–736. https://doi.org/10.1080/13674676.2018.1555699

Akhtarkhavari Sh, B. A., Partovi, B., Jahangiri, R., Jahangiri, N., Khosravi, Kh., et al. (2001). The way to knowing the religion of Zoroaster (1st ed.). Tehran: Fravahar.

Anyan, F., & Knizek, B. L. (2018). The coping mechanisms and strategies of hypertension patients in Ghana: The role of religious faith, beliefs and practices. Journal of Religion and Health. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-017-0517-7

Bade, M. K., & Cook, S. W. (2008). Functions of christian prayer in the coping process. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 47(1), 123–133. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5906.2008.00396.x

Bagby, S. P., Martin, D., Chung, S. T., & Rajapakse, N. (2019). From the outside in: Biological mechanisms linking social and environmental exposures to chronic disease and to health disparities. American Journal of Public Health, 109(S1), S56–S63.

Behere, P. B., Das, A., Yadav, R., & Behere, A. P. (2013). Religion and mental health. Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 55(Suppl 2), S187. https://doi.org/10.4103/0019-5545.105526

Boyce, M. (1996). A history of zoroastrianism: The early period: Brill.

Brown, O., Elkonin, D., & Naicker, S. (2013). The use of religion and spirituality in psychotherapy: Enablers and barriers. Journal of Religion and Health, 52(4), 1131–1146. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-011-9551-z

Chatrung, C., Sorajjakool, S., & Amnatsatsue, K. (2015). Wellness and religious coping among Thai individuals living with chronic kidney disease in Southern California. Journal of Religion and Health, 54(6), 2198. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-014-9958-4

DeJonckheere, M., & Vaughn, L. M. (2019). Semistructured interviewing in primary care research: A balance of relationship and rigour. Family Medicine and Community Health. https://doi.org/10.1136/fmch-2018-000057

DeRossett, T., LaVoie, D. J., & Brooks, D. (2021). Religious coping amidst a pandemic: Impact on COVID-19-related anxiety. Journal of Religion and Health, 60(5), 3161–3176. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-021-01385-5

Dilworth-Anderson, P., Boswell, G., & Cohen, M. D. (2007). Spiritual and religious coping values and beliefs among African American caregivers: A qualitative study. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 26(4), 355–369. https://doi.org/10.1177/0733464807302669

Farjadian, S., Sazzini, M., Tofanelli, S., Castrì, L., Taglioli, L., Pettener, D., Ghaderi, A., Romeo, G., & Luiselli, D. (2011). Discordant patterns of mtDNA and ethno-linguistic variation in 14 Iranian ethnic groups. Human Heredity, 72(2), 73–84. https://doi.org/10.1159/000330166

Foltz, R. (2011). Zoroastrians in Iran: What future in the homeland? The Middle East Journal, 65(1), 73–84. https://doi.org/10.3751/65.1.14

Graneheim, U. H., & Lundman, B. (2004). Qualitative content analysis in nursing research: Concepts, procedures and measures to achieve trustworthiness. Nurse Education Today, 24(2), 105–112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2003.10.001

Guba, E. G., & Lincoln, Y. S. (1994). Competing paradigms in qualitative research. Handbook of Qualitative Research, 2(163–194), 105.

Hajinejad, F., Ebrahimi, E., de Jong, A., & Ravanipour, M. (2019). Factors promoting Iranian older adults’ spirituality: A qualitative content analysis. BMC Geriatrics, 19(1), 132. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-019-1146-7

Harris, J. R. A., McKinney, J. L. G., & Fripp, J. (2019). “ God is a keeper”: A phenomenological investigation of christian African American women’s experiences with religious coping. The Professional Counselor, 9(3), 171–184.

Hekmat, A. (1971). Education in ancient Iran. Keyhan publication.

Koenig, H. G. (1993). Religion and aging. Reviews in Clinical Gerontology, 3(2), 195–203. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959259800003415

Krause, N. (2002). Church-based social support and health in old age: Exploring variations by race. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 57(6), S332–S347. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/57.6.S332

Kristofferzon, M. L., Engström, M., & Nilsson, A. (2018). Coping mediates the relationship between sense of coherence and mental quality of life in patients with chronic illness: A cross-sectional study. Quality of Life Research, 27(7), 1855–1863. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-018-1845-0

Lashgary, Z., Khodadadi, A., Singh, Y., Houshmand, S. M., Mahjoubi, F., Sharma, P., Seyedin, M., Srivastava, A., Ataei, M., Mohammadi, Z., Rezaei, N., Bamezai, R., & Sanati, M. H. (2011). Y chromosome diversity among the Iranian religious groups: A reservoir of genetic variation. Annals of Human Biology, 38(3), 364–371. https://doi.org/10.3109/03014460.2010.535562

Lee, E. K. O., & Sharpe, T. (2007). Understanding religious/spiritual coping and support resources among African American older adults: A mixed-method approach. Journal of Religion, Spirituality and Aging, 19(3), 55–75. https://doi.org/10.1300/J496v19n03_05

Leung, L. (2015). Validity, reliability, and generalizability in qualitative research. Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care, 4(3), 324–327. https://doi.org/10.4103/2249-4863.161306

Liu, Y.-J. (2014). Religious coping methods of Taiwanese folk religion. Journal of Religion and Health, 53(4), 1138–1145. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-013-9709-y

López, S., Thomas, M. G., van Dorp, L., Ansari-Pour, N., Stewart, S., Jones, A. L., Jelinek, E., Chikhi, L., Parfitt, T., Bradman, N., Weale, M. E., & Hellenthal, G. (2017). The genetic legacy of Zoroastrianism in Iran and India: Insights into population structure, gene flow, and selection. The American Journal of Human Genetics, 101(3), 353–368. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2017.07.013

Mahmood, M. (2016). A qualitative exploration of the relationship between religion and well-being in young muslim women in Greater Manchester (BSc (HONS) dissertation). Manchester Metropolitan University.

Malone, J., & Dadswell, A. (2018). The role of religion, spirituality and/or belief in positive ageing for older adults. Geriatrics, 3(2), 28. https://doi.org/10.3390/geriatrics3020028

Meer, S., & Mir, G. (2014). Muslims and depression: The role of religious beliefs in therapy. Journal of Integrative Psychology and Therapeutics, 2(1), 2. https://doi.org/10.7243/2054-4723-2-2

Mosher, C. E., Ott, M. A., Hanna, N., Jalal, S. I., & Champion, V. L. (2015). Coping with physical and psychological symptoms: A qualitative study of advanced lung cancer patients and their family caregivers. Supportive Care in Cancer, 23(7), 2053–2060. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-014-2566-8

Najafi, M., & Shariff, M. (2014). Public attachment to religious places: A study of place attachment to mosques in Malaysia. International Science Index, 18(1), 284–295.

Najmabadi, M. (1992). History of medicine in Iran (Vol. 1). Tehran University Press.

Niknam, K. (2010). Traditional rituals and customs of Zoroastrians in Iran (5th ed.). Fravahar Publication.

O’Brien, B., Shrestha, S., Stanley, M. A., Pargament, K. I., Cummings, J., Kunik, M. E., & Amspoker, A. B. (2019). Positive and negative religious coping as predictors of distress among minority older adults. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 34(1), 54–59. https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.4983

Padela, A. I., & Raza, A. (2014). American muslim health disparities: The state of the medline literature. Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice, 8(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.4103/ajm.AJM_134_17

Pargament, K. I., & Cummings, J. (2010). Anchored by faith: Religion as a resilience factor in handbook of adult resilience (A. J. Z. J. W. Reich, & J. S. Hall Ed.): New York: Guilford Press.

Pargament, K., Feuille, M., & Burdzy, D. (2011). The brief RCOPE: Current psychometric status of a short measure of religious coping. Religions, 2(1), 51–76. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel2010051

Pargament, K. I., Koenig, H. G., & Perez, L. M. (2000). The many methods of religious coping: Development and initial validation of the RCOPE. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 56(4), 519–543. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1097-4679(200004)56:4%3c519::AID-JCLP6%3e3.0.CO;2-1

Pargament, K. I., Tarakeshwar, N., Ellison, C. G., & Wulff, K. M. (2001). Religious coping among the religious: The relationships between religious coping and well-being in a national sample of Presbyterian clergy, elders, and members. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 40(3), 497–513. https://doi.org/10.1111/0021-8294.00073

Park, C. L. (2005). Religion as a meaning-making framework in coping with life stress. Journal of Social Issues, 61(4), 707–772. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.2005.00428.x

Park, J., Manotas, K., & Hooyman, N. (2013). Chronic pain management by ethnically and racially diverse older adults: Pharmacological and nonpharmacological pain therapies. Pain Management, 3(6), 435–454. https://doi.org/10.2217/pmt.13.48

Peltzer, K., Pengpid, S., Amuleru-Marshall, O., Mufune, P., & Abou Zeid, A. (2016). Religiosity and health risk behaviour among university students in 26 low, middle and high income countries. Journal of Religion and Health, 55(6), 2131–2140. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-016-0260-5

Perera, C. K., Pandey, R., & Srivastava, A. K. (2018). Role of religion and spirituality in stress management among nurses. Psychological Studies, 63(2), 187–199. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12646-018-0454-x

Rose, J. (2019). Zoroastrianism: An introduction. Bloomsbury Academic.

Rosmarin, D. H., Pirutinsky, S., Carp, S., Appel, M., & Kor, A. (2017). Religious coping across a spectrum of religious involvement among Jews. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 9(S1), S96. https://doi.org/10.1037/rel0000114

Saritoprak, S. N., & Exline, J. J. (2020). Religious coping among muslims with mental and medical health concerns. In Working With Muslim Clients in the Helping Professions (pp. 201–220): IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-0018-7.ch011

Shaw, S. A., Peacock, L., Ali, L. M., Pillai, V., & Husain, A. (2019). Religious coping and challenges among displaced muslim female refugees. Affilia, 34(4), 518–534. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886109919866158

Speed, D. (2018). Mixed blessings? Religion/spirituality predicts better and worse screening behaviours. Journal of Religion and Health, 57(1), 366–383. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-017-0493-y

Statistical Center of Iran. (2016). Population and housing census of Iran. Retrieved from https://www.amar.org.ir/Portals/0/Files/fulltext/1395/n_ntsonvm_95-v2.pdf.

Tarakeshwar, N., Hansen, N., Kochman, A., & Sikkema, K. J. (2005). Gender, ethnicity and spiritual coping among bereaved HIV-positive individuals. Mental Health, Religion and Culture, 8(2), 109–125. https://doi.org/10.1080/1367467042000240383

Tarakeshwar, N., Pargament, K. I., & Mahoney, A. (2003). Initial development of a measure of religious coping among Hindus. Journal of Community Psychology, 31(6), 607–628. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.10071

Vasileiou, K., Barnett, J., Thorpe, S., & Young, T. (2018). Characterising and justifying sample size sufficiency in interview-based studies: Systematic analysis of qualitative health research over a 15 year period. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 18, 148. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-018-0594-7

VERBI Software. (2019). MAXQDA 2020 [computer software]. Berlin, Germany: VERBI Software. Available from https://maxqda.com.

Vieten, C., & Lukoff, D. (2022). Spiritual and religious competencies in psychology. American Psychologist, 77(1), 26. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000821

Viftrup, D. T., Hvidt, N. C., & Buus, N. (2017). Religious coping in a christian minority group. Nordic Journal of Religion and Society, 30(02), 115–135.

Zarshenas, Z. (2009). Pezeshki dar Irane Bastan [Medicine in ancient Iran]. History of Medicine Journal, 1(1), 11–35.