Spirituality/religiosity’s influence on college students’ adjustment to bereavement: A systematic review.

PSYCHOLOGICAL adaptation; BEREAVEMENT; CINAHL database; ACADEMIC dissertations; PSYCHOLOGY information storage & retrieval systems; EVALUATION of medical care; MEDLINE; PSYCHOLOGY & religion; SPIRITUALITY; SYSTEMATIC reviews; WELL-being; UNDERGRADUATES; DATA analysis software; DESCRIPTIVE statistics

Bereavement is prevalent among college students and spirituality/religiosity may play an important role in their bereavement adjustment. This is the first systematic review to investigate the spirituality/religiosity’s relationship with bereavement among college students. We searched 10 databases and screened 598 studies. Eight studies met the inclusion criteria. Findings suggested a favorable association of spirituality/religiosity with desirable bereavement adjustment outcomes (growth, spiritual wellbeing, and psychological wellbeing), but mixed association with undesirable bereavement outcomes (distress). We provided directions for future research to further investigate the complex relationship between spirituality/religiosity and bereavement and to refine the meaning-making coping model for the college student population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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