Initial Development of the Iranian Religious Coping Scale

This study aimed to develop a religious coping measure for Iranians comparable to Pargament's RCOPE scale. A group of university students (N = 185) completed the research measures. The findings of this study demonstrated that the religious coping scale developed for use with Iranians had five factors comprising religious practice, benevolent reappraisal, negative feelings towards God, passive and active religious coping. The study also showed that the different scales of religious coping had good internal consistency and test-retest reliability and construct validity. The results indicated that Iranian students used positive religious coping methods more frequently than negative strategies. The present research also indicated a significant association between the dimensions of positive religious coping, such as religious practice and psychological well-being. The results suggest that this scale may be useful to the researchers interested in religious coping within Islamic context.