title: Trajectories of religious coping from adolescence into early adulthood: their form and relations to externalizing problems and prosocial behavior.
abstract: Little is known about changes in religious coping and their relations to adolescents' and young adults' functioning. In 686 Italian youths, trajectories of religious coping were identified from age 16-17 years to age 22-23 years; cohorts of youths reported at 3 of the 4 assessments. Four trajectories of religious coping were identified: decreasing, low stable, high stable, and increasing. A decline in religious coping was associated with high levels of externalizing problems at age 16-17, whereas an increase in religious coping was associated with higher externalizing problems at ages 18-19 and 20-21 years and with relatively high involvement with deviant peers. High stable religious copers were high in prosocial behavior at three ages; low stable religious copers were higher than people undergoing change in their religious coping from mid-adolescence into early adulthood. These results can expand our current thinking about religious coping and adolescent adjustment.
authors.affiliation: Arizona State University, Department of Psychology, Tempe, AZ 85287-1104, USA. nancy.eisenberg@asu.edu
authors.forename: Nancy
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Eisenberg
authors.forename: Valeria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Castellani
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Panerai
authors.forename: Natalie D
authors.initials: ND
authors.lastname: Eggum
authors.forename: Adam B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.forename: Concetta
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pastorelli
authors.forename: Gian Vittorio
authors.initials: GV
authors.lastname: Caprara
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group; D010553:Personality Development; D012067:Religion; D012919:Social Behavior; D012931:Social Environment; D055815:Young Adult