Date

5-20-2026

Department

School of Behavioral Sciences

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD)

Chair

Florin Coltea

Keywords

COVID-19 pandemic, church attendance, post-pandemic stress, hope, meaning-making, perceived social support

Disciplines

Psychology | Religion

Abstract

Stress levels among adults increased, and a sense of community loss occurred due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent events. Despite previous studies establishing an association between religious practice and psychological well-being, much remains unknown about the differences in religious practice format (i.e., in person, virtually, and not at all) with post-pandemic stress and resilience-related traits. This quantitative cross-sectional study examined whether the format of church attendance (in-person, virtual, or no church attendance at all) was related to post-pandemic stress and resilience-related traits. Also, whether hope, making meaning out of hardship, and perceived social support statistically mediated the difference in stress across the three formats. A total of 271 participants completed an anonymous Qualtrics survey regarding their church attendance practices (102 in-person attendees, 62 virtual attendees, and 107 non-attendees). Analysis of variance using Welch analyses indicated a statistical difference in post-pandemic stress, hope, making meaning out of hardships, and self-reported social support for each group. Specifically, in-person attendees had lower stress than both virtual attendees and non-attendees, but virtual attendees and non-attendees did not differ in stress levels. Additionally, in-person attendees had higher scores on hope, making meaning out of hardships, and social support compared to both other groups, and hope and making meaning out of hardships mediated the group differences in stress. Overall, these results show that attending church in-person is positively correlated with lower post-pandemic stress and stronger resilience-related traits in this sample.

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