Feasibility of implementing a religious coping protocol based on the Holy Quran in reducing perceived stress: A single-subject study with multiple baseline design

Khatib, Seyed Mahdi; Azarbayejani, Masoud; Pasandideh, Abbas; Janbozorgi, Masoud; Rasoulzadeh Tabatabaei, Seyed Kazem

doi:10.30487/jcp.2026.546264.1840

Feasibility of implementing a religious coping protocol based on the Holy Quran in reducing perceived stress: A single-subject study with multiple baseline design

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Seyed Mahdi Khatib ¹

Masoud Azarbayejani ²

Abbas Pasandideh ³

Masoud Janbozorgi ²

Seyed Kazem Rasoulzadeh Tabatabaei ⁴

¹ Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Quran and Hadith Research Institute

² Professor of Psychology, Department of Psychology, University and Research Institute

³ Professor of the Department of Hadith Sciences and Education, Quran and Hadith Research Center

⁴ Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Tarbiat Modares University

10.30487/jcp.2026.546264.1840

Abstract

The present study was conducted with the aim of examining the feasibility of implementing a religious coping protocol based on the Holy Quran in reducing perceived stress. The research method was a single-subject, multiple-baseline experiment. The research instruments were the Milon Clinical Multiaxial Questionnaire, the Perceived Stress Scale, and the religious coping protocol. Purposive sampling was conducted and 3 people were selected from among the stressed clients of the Samah Qom Counseling Center. Each client was randomly assigned between 3 and 7 baseline sessions. The research findings showed that the clinical satisfaction of the clients with implementing the religious coping protocol was 93% and desirable. The research findings also showed that the improvement rate of all three clients based on the baseline mean reduction index was 36% and significant. In the intra-situational visual analysis, the level changes, stability changes, and trend changes in the intervention phase for all three clients were decreasing and stable. In the inter-situational visual analysis, the level changes and trend changes indicated a decreasing trend in stress for all three clients. Also, the effect size was measured using non-parametric methods of percentage of overlapping data and percentage of non-overlapping data, and the results indicate a very high effect (100 percent) in implementing the religious coping protocol on reducing the perceived stress of clients. Therefore, it is possible to use the religious coping protocol based on the Holy Quran for people with perceived stress, and this protocol can be used to examine its effectiveness in research groups.

Keywords

Religious coping

perceived stress

religious protocol

feasibility study

Islamic psychology

Subjects