• Sharita G Knobloch, Fred Volk, Margaret Gopaul, and Hannah Murch.
• School of Behavioral Sciences and Psychology, Liberty University, Lynchburg, VA 24515, USA.
• Mil Med. 2024 Jul 24.

IntroductionMilitary spouses play a key role in the military family and contribute to military readiness. Despite their influence, they are an understudied population. Previous research has identified military spouses as a vulnerable group considering their unique life stressors and high mental distress; thus, it is critical to identify potential protective factors for military spouses. However, there is a lack of research exploring the role of religious coping and resilience in mental health outcomes of military spouses. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of religious coping on depression, anxiety, and stress, and the extent to which the effect is mediated by resilience.Materials And MethodsA total of 1,079 military spouses completed self-administered surveys online. The questionnaires assessed demographic factors, depression, anxiety, stress, religious coping, and resilience. Zero-order correlations and descriptive statistics were analyzed. Additionally, multiple linear regression was utilized to investigate the extent to which resilience mediated the relationship between religious coping and mental health outcomes.ResultsThe results indicate high levels of depression, anxiety, and stress among military spouses. Religious coping had significant effects on mental distress, such that increases in religious coping corresponded to decreases in depression (β = -3.30), anxiety (β = -1.89) and stress (β = -1.58). Mediation analyses indicated resilience significantly mediated the relationship between religious coping and depression (95% CI [-1.38, -.431]), anxiety (95% CI [-1.23, -.376]), and stress (95% CI [-1.328, -0.420]). For military spouses, religious coping was associated with increased resilience, which was subsequently associated with reduced mental distress.ConclusionsThis study draws attention to the role of religious coping and resilience in mental health outcomes for military spouses. Considering the role of military spouses in supporting service members, future research should explore how to strengthen military spouses' religious coping and resilience to mitigate mental distress, thereby facilitating service member success and military readiness.© The Association of Military Surgeons of the United States 2024. All rights reserved. For commercial re-use, please contact reprints@oup.com for reprints and translation rights for reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our site–for further information please contact journals.permissions@oup.com.

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