Religious coping as a moderator of the five factor model of personality traits and alcohol abuse severity at six-month follow-up in a Twelve Step treatment sample

Personality traits and religious coping are often viewed by counseling psychologists as strengths that influence how difficult situations are handled. Within the substance abuse literature, both personality traits and religious coping style are proposed to have profound impacts on substance abuse and treatment outcomes.;The success of Twelve Step treatment programs is predicated on the notion that treatment works by affecting both "positive" personality changes and use of positive religious coping as means for decreasing substance abuse. However, virtually no empirical research exists to account for the impact of religious coping and personality on treatment outcomes. In contrast, a large literature base exists that examines the roles of personality on substance abuse and treatment outcomes. Because Twelve Step treatments utilize both personality traits and religious coping as means for decreasing substance abuse, an investigation of the unique and shared influence of these factors on treatment outcomes seems appropriate.;In this dissertation, I examined the influence of personality factors (Revised NEO Personality Inventory, NEO-PI-R), religious coping (Coping Styles Test, CST), and the possible moderating effect of religious coping on the relationship between personality factors and alcohol abuse severity in a sample of 500 veterans who received a structured Twelve Step group treatment for alcohol abuse at a Midwestern VA hospital.;The results of this study were (1) high level expressions of several facets of the NEO-PI-R were associated with decreased alcohol abuse severity six months after formal treatment ended; (2) the use of a Collaborative Religious Coping Style was also associated with decreased alcohol abuse severity after treatment; (3) religious coping style moderated the relation among NEO-PI-R traits and alcohol abuse severity six-months after Twelve Step treatment; and (4) the combined effect of high level expression of the Five Factor Model trait Agreeableness and the use of a Collaborative Religious Coping Style had the greatest impact on decreased alcohol abuse. Therefore, this study provides preliminary support for religious coping as a moderator of the relationship between personality traits and alcohol abuse in a Twelve Step treatment sample.