Pastoral Psychology, Vol. 49, No. 4, 2001 The Association Between Strength of Religious Faith and Coping with Daily Stress Thomas G. Plante, 1,3 Beatriz Saucedo, 2 and Chelsea Rice 2 Recent research has examined the positive relationship between religious faith and both physical and mental health. The current study investigated the association between strength of religious faith and the ability to cope with daily stress over a 7-day period. The participants consisted of 68 students and 64 faculty or staff from a Catholic, liberal arts university. Measures included the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire, the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale, the Symptom Check List-90-Revised, the Weinberger Low Self Esteem Scale, and a 10- point daily stress, coping, and strength of faith scale. Results suggest that religious faith was not associated with coping with daily stress. KEY WORDS: religious faith; stress; coping. There has been a great deal of recent research that has examined the rela- tionship between religious faith and both physical and mental health (see Ellison, 1998; Duckro & Magaletta, 1994 for reviews). For example, there have been many religious faith studies that have focused on cancer, cardiovascular disease, AIDS, suicide, depression, self-esteem, life satisfaction, and personal adjustment (Hill & Butter, 1995; Perry, 1998; Drevenstedt, 1998; Koenig, 1998). Much of this research has investigated the relationship between religious faith and physical health benefits. Included in this category are studies involving patients experiencing cancer (Halstead & Fernsler, 1994). Halstead and Fernsler found that from a sample of 59 cancer survivors, 68% of them reported using 1 Thomas G. Plante is Associated Professor and Chair of Psychology at Santa Clara University and Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine. 2 Beatriz Saucedo and Chelsea Rice are psychology students at Santa Clara University. 3 Address correspondence to Thomas G. Plante, Psychology Department, 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA 95053-0333; e-mail: tplante@scu.edu. Funding for this project was provided by the Bannan Institute for Jesuit Education and Christian Values at Santa Clara University. 291 0031-2789/01/0300-0291$19.50/0 C  2001 Human Sciences Press, Inc.