Religiosity and its association with positive and negative emotions among college students from Algeria

To explore the associations between religiosity and both positive and negative emotions and traits, a sample of 244 volunteer Muslim college students from Algeria was recruited. The students responded to five self-rating scales to assess religiosity, physical health, mental health, happiness, and satisfaction with life, in addition to the Arabic Scale of Optimism and Pessimism, and the Kuwait University Anxiety Scale. Religiosity and satisfaction with life were higher among women than men. Among men, religiosity was significantly correlated only with mental health. However, in women, religiosity was significantly and positively correlated with physical health, mental health, happiness, satisfaction with life, and optimism, whereas religiosity correlated negatively with both anxiety and pessimism. Factor analysis yielded a single bipolar factor labelled positive emotions and religiosity vs. neurotic tendency (anxiety and pessimism) in women. Two orthogonal factors were extracted in men: positive vs. negative traits of mental health, and religiosity. The present results are compatible with the wider literature on the association between religion and positive variables among a Muslim context.     

Religiosity, health, and well-being among Kuwaiti personnel

In a sample of 424 Kuwaiti personnel (219 men, 205 women; M age = 37.6 yr., SD = 8.9; M age = 33.4 yr., SD = 7.9, respectively), self-ratings of religiosity were significantly and positively correlated with the self-ratings of physical health, mental health, and happiness, as well as the Oxford Happiness Inventory, the Love of Life Scale, and the Satisfaction with Life Scale among men and women. Principal components analysis of the correlation matrix yielded only one salient factor labeled "Well-being, health and religiosity" that explained 52.7% and 56.5% of the variance for men and women, respectively. Religiosity is an important element in the lives of the majority of the present sample of Kuwaiti Muslim employees.     

Why are women more religious than men? Testing the explanatory power of personality theory among undergraduate students in Wales

This study tests the explanatory power of personality-based psychologically grounded theories to account for the well-established finding within the psychology of religion that within Christian and post-Christian contexts women are more religious than men. A sample of 1682 undergraduate students in Wales completed the short form of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Revised together with the adult form of the Francis Scale of Attitude towards Christianity and measures of frequency of church attendance, and frequency of personal prayer. These data confirm that women record higher levels of religiosity and lower levels of psychoticism, and demonstrate that psychoticism is the strongest predictor of individual differences in religiosity. Multiple-regression analyses show that, when individual differences in personality are taken into account, biological sex adds no further impact on religiosity. This finding suggests that higher levels of religiosity among women may be interpreted as a function of basic psychological differences in levels of psychoticism rather than as a sociological function of being female.     

Religiosity and Self-Esteem of Muslim Immigrants to the United States: The Moderating Role of Perceived Discrimination

The present study investigated the moderating effect of perceived discrimination in a sample of Muslim immigrants (N = 174). Sex differences on perceived discrimination, religiosity, and self-esteem were examined. Results suggested a significant difference between Muslim men and women in regards to measures of religiosity. Men displayed higher religiosity scores. Results also indicated a significant positive relationship between measures of religiosity and perceived discrimination. Our results also provided full support for the moderating role of perceived discrimination. Implications of these findings for psychologists and future research examining these relationships are addressed.     

Religiosity and forgiveness among first-married and remarried adults

The current study examined the relationship between religiosity and forgiveness among first-married and remarried adults. Seven hundred and eighty-seven married adults from the Flanders region in Belgium completed the Enright Forgiveness Inventory and a four-item Religiosity Scale measuring forgiveness and religiosity, respectively. The results indicated that religiosity positively correlated (p?=?0.0001, r?=?0.15) with forgiveness. There was a significant difference between the religiosity of the first-married and the remarried adults (p?=?0.0001 (two-tailed) d?=?0.61). In an analysis by gender, the women showed a statistically significantly higher religiosity than did men (p?=?0.00005 (one-tailed) d?=?0.28). Among the demographic variables, age (r?=?0.26), number of children (r?=?0.35), and number of years in marriage (r?=?0.34) showed a statistically significant (p?=?0.0001) positive correlation with religiosity. The basic purpose of this study was to inform clinicians of the value of forgiveness and religiosity in therapeutic interventions.     

Religiosity and its association with subjective well-being and depression among Kuwaiti and Palestinian Muslim children and adolescents

The present study sought to investigate the association of religiosity and the self-ratings of happiness, satisfaction with life, mental health, physical health, and depression among Kuwaiti (N?=?1937) and Palestinian (N?=?1009) Muslim children and adolescents (M _age?=?14.1, SD?=?1.4). They responded to five self-rating scales and the Multidimensional Child and Adolescent Depression Scale. It was found that Palestinian males were significantly less religious than all other groups, while Kuwaiti males and females had significantly higher mean scores on happiness and satisfaction than Palestinians. Kuwaiti males had significantly higher mental health and less depression than all other groups. Among all the four groups, the correlations between religiosity and well-being rating scales were positively significant, but negatively significant with depression. The principal components analysis yielded a single salient factor for all groups and labelled “Religiosity and well-being vs. depression.” It was concluded that clinicians treating depression will probably make use of its negative association with religiosity mainly among Muslim clients.     

Religiosity and psychological well-being

The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between religiosity and psychological well-being in a sample of Greek Orthodox Christians. Previous research has documented that personal devotion, participation in religious activities, and religious salience are positively associated with different criteria of psychological well-being. The sample (83 men and 280 women) with an age range from 18 to 48 years, was strongly skewed with respect to sex (77% female) and education level (95% were university students or university graduates). Religiosity was operationalized as church attendance, frequency of prayer and belief salience. In addition, a single item referring to beliefs about God was used. Depression, anxiety, loneliness, and general life satisfaction were selected as dependent variables because they reflect important dimensions of psychological well-being. Preliminary analyses showed that sex was significantly related to the three religiosity variables (church attendance, frequency of prayer, belief salience), with women being more religious than men. Consistent with previous research, correlations suggested that church attendance and belief salience were associated with better life satisfaction. The results of hierarchical regression analysis showed a significant positive association between anxiety and frequency of personal prayer. Finally, personal beliefs about God did not seem to relate to any of the psychological well-being measures. The results of the present study partially support the hypothesized association between religiosity and psychological well-being.     

Religiosity and social desirability: impression management and self-deceptive positivity

The first aim of the present study was to replicate previous research, which has investigated the association between scores on the Francis Scale of Attitudes towards Christianity (FSAC) (Francis & Stubbs, 1987) and scores on Eysenck's Personality Questionnaire (EPQ-R Short Scale) (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1991). Further evidence is presented that higher religiosity is associated with lower scores on the psychoticism scale. The main aim of the present study, however, was to investigate the association between social desirability and religiosity. Although no association was found between religiosity and Lie scale scores in the present study, there is debate over what the Lie scale is actually measuring and so we also included, among other measures, the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR: Paulhus, 1988), which consists of two subscales, self deceptive positivity and impression management. It was found that although religiosity was not associated with self-deception it was associated with impression management.     

Religiosity, psychoticism, and schizotypal traits

In the present study we investigated the relationship between scores on the Francis Scale of Attitudes towards Christianity [FSAC (Francis & Stubbs, Personality and Individual Differences, 8, 741–743, 1987)], Eysenck's Personality Questionnaire [EPQ (Eysenck & Eysenck, Manual of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, 1975)], Eckblad and Chapman's Magical Ideation Scale [MgI (Eckblad & Chapman, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 51, 215–225, 1983)], and Claridge's STQ (Claridge & Broks, Personality and Individual Differences, 5, 633–648, 1984). A first Principal Components Analysis with the FSAC and the EPQ confirmed previous work which has shown a negative association between religiosity and psychoticism. A second Principal Components Analysis with all scales yielded a four factor solution:

1. (1) aberrant perceptions and beliefs;

2. (2) social anxiety and suspiciousness;

3. (3) asociality and low religiosity; and

4. (4) social desirability.

Some evidence is also presented for an association between higher religiosity and higher scores on unusual perceptual experiences in men although not in women. Implications for the assessment of religiosity in future research are discussed.     

The Role of Ambivalent Sexism and Religiosity in Predicting Attitudes Toward Childlessness in Muslim Undergraduate Students

The aim of the current study was to investigate the relationship between ambivalent sexism, specifically hostile sexism (HS) and benevolent sexism (BS), religiosity, and attitudes toward childlessness in Muslim undergraduate students. The sample consisted of 157 (79 women, 78 men) Turkish Islamic undergraduate students studying in North Cyprus, aged between 17 and 30 years-old and originating from various regions in Turkey. Participants completed measures of ambivalent sexism and attitudes toward childlessness as well as rated their level of religiosity. It was expected that due to its emphasis of traditional gender roles, benevolent sexism and high Islamic religiosity would predict negative attitudes toward childlessness in the Turkish sample. Results showed that in women, higher levels of religiosity and benevolent sexism predicted negative attitudes toward childlessness, whereas in men, benevolent sexism alone was predictive of negative attitudes toward childlessness. The results are discussed in accordance with literature on ambivalent sexism and the religion of Islam.     

Religion,moral thought–action fusion,and obsessive–compulsive features in Israeli Muslims and Jews

Previous studies suggest that the link between obsessive–compulsive (OC) symptoms and moral thought–action fusion (TAF) depends on religion; however, no study has compared Muslim and Jewish samples. We examined the relationships between OC symptoms, scrupulosity, religiosity, and moral TAF in Israeli Muslims and Jews. Religiosity was not associated with elevations in OC symptoms, although religiosity correlated with scrupulosity across the entire sample after controlling for depression and anxiety. Moral TAF was related to scrupulosity across the entire sample. The Muslim group had higher levels of OC symptoms, scrupulosity, and depressive symptoms than did the Jewish group, but the groups were equally religious. In addition, Muslims scored higher than did Jews on moral TAF even after controlling for symptoms; however, moral TAF was not related to scrupulosity within the Muslim group. In combination, these results imply that moral TAF depends on cultural and religious factors and does not necessarily indicate pathology.     

Depression and its relation to loneliness and religiosity in Indonesian Muslim adolescents

This study was initiated to assess the relations between religiosity, depressive symptoms, and loneliness in a sample of 452 Indonesian Muslim 13- and 16-year-old adolescents. Religiosity was operationally defined as participation in required and optional religious activities; Depression was assessed using the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale; and Loneliness was assessed using the UCLA Loneliness Scale. Religiosity was negatively associated with depression despite controlling for loneliness, gender, and grade. Religiosity was not associated with loneliness, suggesting discriminant validity in the relation between religiously and depression. It is important in future research to examine the mechanisms by which religiosity serves as a protective factor for Indonesian Muslim adolescents.     

Religiosity,happiness, health,and psychopathology in a probability sample of Muslim adolescents

The aim of the present study was to explore the religiosity associations with the self-rating scales of happiness, mental health, physical health, anxiety, and depression. A sample (N?=?6,339) of Muslim Kuwaiti adolescents was recruited. Their ages ranged from 15 to 18. They responded to four self-rating scales to assess religiosity, happiness, mental health, and physical health, as well as the Kuwait University Anxiety Scale, and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale. Boys had higher mean scores on happiness, mental health, and physical health than did girls, whereas girls had higher mean scores on religiosity, anxiety, and depression. All the correlations were significant in both sexes. They were positive between each of the self-rating scales of religiosity, happiness, mental health, and physical health, and negative between these four rating scales and both anxiety and depression. A high-loaded and bipolar factor was disclosed and labelled “Religiosity and well-being vs. psychopathology.” In the stepwise regression, the main predictor of religiosity was happiness in both sexes.     

The influence of the hijab (Islamic head-cover) on perceptions of women's attractiveness and intelligence

This study examined the effects of wearing the hijab, or Islamic headwear, on men's perceptions of women's attractiveness and intelligence. A total of 57 non-Muslim men and 41 Muslim men rated a series of images of women, half of whom were unveiled and half of whom wore the hijab. For attractiveness and intelligence ratings, a mixed analysis of variance showed a significant effect of hijab status, with women wearing the hijab being rated more negatively than unveiled women. For attractiveness ratings, there was no significant effect of participant religion, although non-Muslim men rated unveiled women significantly higher than veiled women. For intelligence ratings, non-Muslim men provided significantly higher ratings than Muslim men for both conditions. In addition, Muslim men's ratings of the attractiveness and intelligence of women wearing the hijab was positively correlated with self-reported religiosity. These results are discussed in relation to religious stereotyping within increasingly multi-cultural societies.     

Measuring Religiosity in a Majority Muslim Context: Gender,Religious Salience,and Religious Experience Among Kuwaiti College Students—A Research Note

The meaning of traditional and alternative measures of religiosity in a majority Muslim context is examined using the Islamic Social Attitudes Survey (ISAS). Specifically, this article reports a test of whether traditional religiosity measures are useful in a majority Muslim context. Differences between men and women are explored as well as the extent to which demographics, schools of thought, and religious socialization are significantly correlated to religious salience and religious experience. Results suggest the need to use alternative measures of Islamic religiosity and to take gender difference into account. Islamist political affiliation and religious socialization are positively associated with religious salience and experience for women, while more traditional measures such as mosque attendance and Qur’anic reading are associated with religious salience and experience for men, even after controlling for religious sect.     

The Relationships between Ambivalent Sexism and Religiosity among Turkish University Students

This study explored the relationships among hostile sexism (HS), benevolent sexism (BS), and religiosity for men and women in Turkey, where Islam is the predominant religion. 73 male and 93 female university students completed measures of ambivalent sexism and religiosity. Replicating previous work with Christians, religiosity was a significant correlate of BS when HS was controlled, for both men and women. As predicted, and in contrast to previous research with Christians, partial correlations indicated that Muslim religiosity was a significant correlate of HS for men, when BS was controlled, but not for women. Women but not men showed a significant difference between religiosity’s partial correlations with HS and BS. The results were discussed in the light of relevant literature.     

What Makes Muslim Women Entrepreneurs Successful? A Field Study Examining Religiosity and Social Capital in Tunisia

The present study sheds light upon critical factors that help explain the entrepreneurial success among Muslim women living in a democratic Tunisia, a Muslim-majority country considered by many to be the lone Arab Spring success story. We hypothesized that successful entrepreneurs need social capital, including the capital that comes from marriage and high levels of wasta (the Arabic concept of having personal connections with influential others). Moreover, given the lack of empirical attention paid to the role of the culture, language, and customs associated with Islam on women’s empowerment, we examine whether religiosity is related to entrepreneurial performance among Tunisian women. Data collected with 84 female entrepreneurs participating in entrepreneurship training programs across Tunisia reveal that two forms of social capital, marital status and wasta, are related to training center directors’ ratings of women entrepreneurs’ performance, suggesting that social capital is a critical asset for Muslim women entrepreneurs. Religiosity, on the other hand, had no statistically significant relationship with entrepreneurial performance. Our study contributes to research on entrepreneurship by identifying wasta as a form of social capital that may be necessary for women entrepreneurs to succeed in the Middle East and North Africa and by taking an initial step towards better understanding the empirical (and controversial) relationship between religiosity and career success among Muslim women. We recommend that training organizations supporting entrepreneurs directly assist women in the development of social capital and acknowledge, rather than ignore, that nepotism and wasta are linked to entrepreneurial success in some cultures.     

Religiosity,subjective well-being,and depression in Saudi children and adolescents

To explore the associations between religiosity and both subjective well-being (SW-B) and depression, a sample of 7211 Saudi school children and adolescents was recruited (2159 boys, 5052 girls). Their ages ranged from 11 to 18 years (M _age = 16.1, SD = 1.5 for boys; M _age = 15.6, SD = 1.9 for girls). They responded to five self-rating-scales of religiosity and SW-B, that is, happiness, satisfaction, mental health, and physical health, as well as the Multidimensional Child and Adolescent Depression Scale. It was found that males obtained significantly higher mean scores than their female counterparts on the religiosity and the SW-B self-rating-scales, whereas females obtained a significantly higher mean score on depression than their male peers. All the correlations among males and female were significant between religiosity and both SW-B rating scales (positive) and depression (negative). A principle components analysis was conducted. A high-loaded and bipolar factor was disclosed and labelled “Religiosity and well-being vs. depression.” In the stepwise multiple regression, the main predictor of religiosity in both sexes was satisfaction. In the light of the high mean score on religiosity, it was concluded that religiosity is an important element in the lives of the present sample of Saudi Muslim children and adolescents. Based on the correlations and factor analysis, it was also concluded that religious persons (in this sample) are happier, healthier, and less depressed.     

Religious coping,stress, and quality of life of Muslim university students in New Zealand

Most of the research on religious coping has been conducted with Christian participants from Western cultures, although in recent years increasingly more studies have been conducted with Muslim participants. For university students in Muslim countries, religiosity is positively correlated with a variety of indices of mental health and psychological well-being, but only a small number of studies investigated coping in Muslims living and studying in a non-Muslim country. The present study thus explored the relationship between perceived stress, quality of life (QOL), and religious coping in a sample of 114 Muslim university students in New Zealand. International Muslim students had higher levels of spirituality/religiousness than domestic Muslim students, and used more positive and negative religious coping methods. For international students, positive religious coping was positively related to QOL and lack of stress, while, for domestic students, negative religious coping was negatively related to the QOL and increased stress. This different pattern may relate to the ethnic background of the participants, and the results of the present study thus highlight that Muslims studying at universities overseas can certainly not be considered as a homogenous group.     

Religion and mental health among Hindu young people in England

The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between mental health and attitude toward their religious tradition among a sample of 330 young people attending the Hindu Youth Festival in London. The participants completed the Santosh–Francis Scale of Attitude toward Hinduism together with the abbreviated form of the Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire which provides measures of neuroticism and psychoticism. The data indicated that a more positive attitude toward Hinduism was associated with lower psychoticism scores but unrelated to neuroticism scores. There is no evidence, therefore, to associate higher levels of religiosity with poorer mental health among young people within the Hindu community.