God, cancer, and the good life: An investigation into the effectiveness of a spiritual/religious intervention on coping and well-being of cancer patients

In light of the high prevalence of breast cancer and the importance of addressing spirituality/religious issues in clinical care, the present study sought to investigate the effectiveness of a spiritual/religious intervention on religious coping and psychological well-being in women with breast cancer. A quasi-experimental with pre-test and post-test design and a control group was conducted in a sample of 60 Iranian breast cancer patients. Pargament’s 14-item Brief RCOPE and 6-dimentional Ryff’s Psychological Well-being Scales were administered at baseline and follow-up. Research data were analyzed using an analysis of covariance. Results indicate that the spiritual/religious intervention was effective in increasing positive religious coping and reducing negative religious coping, although there was no effect on psychological well-being.