Background Religious coping can be seen as a method which applies religious resources, including prayer, and trust and appeals to God, in order to deal with stressful situations.
Aim To gain insight into the associations between religious coping styles and mental health and to investigate whether the use of the coping styles differs between mental health care clients and non-mental health care clients with a Christian background.
Method The sample consisted of 655 Dutch participants with a Christian worldview, aged 18 to 79 years (M = 42.6, SD = 14.2). 60.9% were female and 49.5% higher educated. Intra- and extramural clients in mental health care were involved. A cross-sectional, online survey was used, combined with an available client database.
Results More use of the collaborative coping style was associated with less psychological complaints. More use of the (passive-)deferring and selfdirecting coping styles was associated with more psychological complaints. Christian mental health care clients used the collaborative and the deferring coping styles less often compared to Christian non-clients.
Conclusion The collaborative religious coping style is positively associated with mental health. Mental health care clients amongst them use this style less often compared to non-clients. Awareness of religious coping styles and appropriate support are indicated.