Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol (2011) 46:1027–1032 DOI 10.1007/s00127-010-0270-7 O R I G I N A L P A P E R Changes in religious beliefs and the relation of religiosity to posttraumatic stress and life satisfaction after a natural disaster Ajmal Hussain • Lars Weisaeth • Trond Heir Received: 25 September 2009 / Accepted: 2 July 2010 / Published online: 31 July 2010 The Author(s) 2010. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract Objective To study changes in religious beliefs and pre- dictors of such changes in a community sample exposed to a natural disaster, and to investigate whether religiosity was linked to post-disaster mental distress or life satisfaction. Methods An adult population of 1,180 Norwegian tourists who experienced the 2004 tsunami was surveyed by a postal questionnaire 2 years after the disaster. Data inclu- ded religiosity, disaster exposure, general psychopathol- ogy, posttraumatic stress and life satisfaction. Results Among the respondents, 8% reported strength- ening and 5% reported weakening of their religious beliefs. Strengthening was associated with pre-tsunami mental health problems (OR: 1.82, 95% CI: 1.12–2.95) and post- traumatic stress (OR: 1.62, 95% CI: 1.22–2.16). Weaken- ing was associated with younger age (OR: 0.98, 95% CI: 0.96–1.00) and posttraumatic stress (OR: 1.72, 95% CI: 1.23–2.41). Two years after the tsunami, 11% of the sample considered themselves to be positively religious. There were no signiﬁcant differences in posttraumatic stress, general psychopathology or life satisfaction between religious and non-religious groups. Conclusions Religion did not play an important role in the lives of Norwegian tsunami survivors in general. Respondents who had the greatest disaster exposure were more likely to report changes in religious beliefs in both A. Hussain (&) L. Weisaeth T. Heir Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies, Kirkeveien 166, Building 48, 0407 Oslo, Norway e-mail: ajmal.hussain@nkvts.unirand.no; ajmal@hussain.no L. Weisaeth Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, 0318 Oslo, Norway directions. Religious beliefs did not prevent post-disaster long-term mental distress, and religiosity was not related to higher levels of life satisfaction. Keywords Norwegian tourist 2004 tsunami Changes in religious beliefs Religiosity Posttraumatic stress Introduction Traumatic events affect not only the psychological dimension of the self, but also the faith system that gives meaning to life [40]. Religious beliefs can develop through the experience of traumatic events, and religion and spiri- tual beliefs can be helpful in psychological recovery [37]. Traumatic experiences sometimes enhance religious beliefs [7] or lead to an increase in religious activity [35]; alter- natively, such experiences can result in a weakening of religious commitment [36] or even abandonment of religious faith [11]. Religion has often been perceived as a source of com- fort, meaning and purpose for individuals who experience traumatizing life events [8, 34]. For many people, religion can make suffering understandable and bearable [32], and provides a means of coping in times of extreme stress [30, 31]. There have been many studies of religious coping [20] and of the relationship between religiosity and mental health [16, 18, 27]. The ﬁndings are somewhat inconclu- sive, although most report that religious commitment is related to better mental health [29]. Most of the studies are from the USA where religion seems to play an important role both at the community level [12, 26] and in the lives of many victims [34]. Also, the literature on the religion– health connection has focused almost exclusively on 123