are two types of spiritual coping, positive and negative. Positive spiritual coping manifests itself as a strong relationship with God, seeking support from the community and a higher power, looking for meaning in life and helping others. Most people who practice spirituality engage in positive spiritual coping which is associated with improved mental and physical health. Negative spiritual coping, a pattern distinct from positive spiritual coping, has negative health implications. Negative spiritual coping involves deferring all responsibility to God, feeling abandoned by God or blaming God for difficulties. It often manifests itself as a less secure relationship with God, an ominous worldview and general spiritual discontent. For those who engage in negative spiritual coping, it is related to significantly poorer physical and mental health outcomes as well as higher mortality. In a study done by Pargament (1998), negative spiritual coping had differing negative health implications among different populations. For citizens of Oklahoma City who experienced the federal building bombing, it was associated with more post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and higher levels of callousness. For college students, negative spiritual coping was associated with higher levels of emotional distress and poorer physical health. For hospital patients with physical ailments, negative spiritual coping was associated with higher levels of depression and lower quality of life. Role of spirituality in the lives of homeless people A homeless person is an individual without a consistent, fixed nighttime residence or someone whose nighttime residence is a supervised shelter that provides temporary housing. Homelessness is a chronic stressor producing reduced wellbeing. Homeless populations are a vulnerable population experiencing a higher prevalence of mental and physical health problems as well as victimization and increased mortality rates. Spirituality is one method some homeless individuals use to cope with their position of high vulnerability. Runquist and Reed (2007) found that spiritual perspective correlated positively with measures of wellbeing among the sample of homeless individuals surveyed and that measures of wellbeing correlated positively with self-rated health status. Social capital resulting from spirituality or religion, according to Irwin (2008), is a critical factor to wellbeing among homeless populations. It increases the resource base of the individual enabling them to cope with their situation in healthier ways. Youth Youth, typically defined as people between the ages of twelve and twenty-four, make up a large portion of the homeless population. As they are a transient population, it is difficult to get an accurate count