Resilience and Terrorism Catastrophizing: Mediating Role of Religious Coping Strategies

In the current era, terrorism has become a biggest global concern. Educational institutions are the most vulnerable places being targeted by terrorist attacks. The increased security measures and the risk of being targeted have aroused the feelings of catastrophizing and distress among students. The present research aimed at studying the relationship between resilience, terrorism catastrophizing, and coping strategies among university students. Furthermore, it aimed at exploring the mediating role of religious coping in relation between resilience and terrorism catastrophizing. Employing the technique of convenience sampling, data was collected from 400 university students of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. The results indicated that there was a significant negative relationship between ego resilience, terrorism catastrophizing, and its dimensions, that is, rumination, magnification, and helplessness. Significant positive relationship was observed between maladaptive coping strategies (venting, denial, behavioral disengagement, self-distraction, self-blame, and substance use) and terrorism catastrophizing. On the contrary, significant negative relationship was found between maladaptive coping strategies (venting, denial, behavioral disengagement, self distraction, self-blame, and substance use) and ego resilience. Results further showed that ego resilience had significant positive relationship with adaptive coping strategies (instrumental support, planning, active coping, religious coping); whereas terrorism catastrophizing was negatively associated with the adaptive coping strategies. Results further showed that religious coping mediated the relationship between resilience and terrorism catastrophizing. Implications and suggestions were given based upon the research conducted for future researches in this area of concern.