The effect of previous religion based educative experiences on religious coping in the pregnant

Considering theological education and psychology of theological studies conducted in Turkey, we see that many variables have been observed together with religious coping strategies. However, there is no study on the relation between theological education and religious coping strategies. Our study has been conducted to fill this gap. We have aimed at surveying the impact of past theological education on religious coping strategies. Gestation is a stressful process that requires both physiological and psychological adaptation. This process is considered a convenient one to evaluate the religious coping strategies. Religion is an efficient factor to let individuals understand events, assign positive meanings and adopt to them. The religiosity-oriented references during coping with events define religious coping strategies. Theological education is a discipline that aims at providing theological information through correct sources and correct methods. It is obvious that the theological education acquired through correct sources and methods contribute to physical, spiritual, emotional and intellectual developments of individuals. Sufficient and efficient theological education affects individuals' perception of events and their behaviours. In this study, we have aimed at whether theological education affects a mother's levels of religious coping strategies while coping with physical and psychological problems during gestation process. The method of our study is a quantitative method: correlational survey method. The database of our questionnaire that consists of demographic questions, questions of theological education and scale of religious coping strategies have been analysed through SPSS program. 131 people have been included in our questionnaire and non parametric tests have been applied as the data obtained is non-normal. Tests of Man-Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis H have been used. As a conclusion of our survey, reasonable outcomes have been obtained between scales of religious coping strategies and the variables of family type, getting trained once in a quran course, having elective theological course and risk of miscarriage. Keywords: Religious Education, Religion Coping, Pregnancy