Effects of Religious Participation on Social Inclusion and Existential Well-Being Levels of Muslim Refugees and Immigrants in Turkey

ABSTRACT

Being a refugee or immigrant brings many difficulties that can detrimentally affect well-being. Participation in social life and feeling included in the host country can play an important role on well-being. This article aims to investigate the effects of religious participation and social inclusion on well-being levels of refugees and immigrants. Data were collected from 97 participants who were enrolled in voluntary Turkish language courses for refugees in Istanbul. Results of path analysis indicated that religious participation enhanced the level of social inclusion and social inclusion fostered existential well-being. Although religious participation demonstrated no direct effects on existential well-being, it showed a significant and positive indirect effect through social inclusion. Results of difference tests indicated that participants with higher level of education attended to religious activities significantly more often and their existential well-being and social inclusion levels were higher as well. Results also demonstrated that social inclusion scores of high attenders (to religious activities) were significantly higher.     

To Have Life,and Have It Abundantly! Health and Well-Being in Biblical Perspective

Epidemiological studies researching the impact of participation in religious activities on the overall health and well-being of individuals suggest that having faith and practicing religion is good since they represent expense free, non-medical coping mechanisms accessible to everyone. Faith and religion, thus, can serve for a large number of people as potential reservoirs for cultivating well-being and maintaining health, thereby cutting health-care costs significantly. This begs the question if such pragmatic instrumentalization does do justice to faith and religion in the first place. The article investigates this question taking the Christian biblical tradition as an example by, first, identifying texts speaking of ‘health’ across different Bible versions (I), second, by sketching related concepts of ‘health’ (II) and, finally, by assessing the actual extent to which biblical tradition supports the quest for health and well-being (III).     

The relationships between religiosity,stress, and mental health for Muslim immigrant youth

Acculturation, or the process of change that takes place as a result of intercultural contact, can cause a range of stressors. The task of managing this acculturative stress is particularly difficult for Muslim immigrants in Western contexts due to the global rise of Islamophobia. Research investigating the experiences of young migrant Muslims has found inconsistent results regarding the moderating influences of religious identity and religious practices on the relationship between stress and mental health. The current study examined whether levels of religiosity interacted with distinct forms of acculturative stress in the prediction of depression and well-being for Muslim youth in New Zealand. Results painted a complex picture of the relationships between religiosity and mental health, finding that greater religiosity is generally positive for youth outcomes, but it also carries the risk lowering levels of mental health through its interactions with acculturative stress.     

Becoming Eastern Orthodox in diaspora: materializing Orthodox Russia and Holy Rus’

In this article, I draw on interviews and participant observation data from a two-year-long ethnographic study in a Russian Orthodox parish in the United States. I argue that both the Russian Orthodox immigrants and the Protestant converts to Orthodoxy attending this parish may be usefully thought of as diasporic groups. Seeking to construct their particular Orthodox identity, both groups deal with their own physical and symbolic displacements, and attempt to find their place of belonging. I demonstrate how in the process, through reliance on religious narratives, prayer, and Russian Orthodox icons, parishioners construct two overlapping, yet distinctive places of their origin: Holy Rus’ and Orthodox Russia. Finally, attending to how some Orthodox Christians were able to position themselves in two groups simultaneously, I suggest that we think of religious practitioners as able to inhabit two diasporas at once.     

Religious coping in highly religious psychiatric inpatients

This study among highly religious psychiatric patients in a mental hospital in the Netherlands focused on the following issues: their religious and spiritual beliefs and activities; their religious coping activities, measured using Pargament's three coping styles and a positive religious coping scale; the influence of religious coping on psychological and existential well-being; and the predictive value of general religiousness, as compared with religious coping activities, regarding psychological and existential well-being.

For this population of inpatients, religion had a positive influence on their ways of dealing with mental problems; religious coping was positively correlated with existential and psychological well-being. General religiousness as well as religious coping were positively correlated with existential well-being, whereas psychological well-being primarily was predicted by positive religious coping.

Results are discussed in the context of theoretical notions of religious coping, addressing in particular the positive influence of religious beliefs, relying on God, religious activities and religious social support in psychological and existential times of crisis.     

A Review of Carolyn Chen’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">Getting Saved in America: Taiwanese Immigration and Religious Experience</Emphasis>

Becoming religious among immigrants to the U.S. is undoubtedly a complex transformation. It takes place with both external sociocultural conditions and internal spiritual and psychological volitions. While marveling at Carolyn Chen’s fine scholarship on Taiwanese immigrants’ conversion experience, this review offers a critical reading of Chen’s equation: becoming American = becoming religious or vice versa with the reviewer’s own experience as both an Asian immigrant and a cultural anthropologist. It also discusses Chen’s assessment of the gendered identity of both Asian-American men and women, be it religious, cultural, or political.     

“We don't Talk about that Around Here”: religion,Spirituality and Mental Health in Northern Ireland

Since the early 1970s, Northern Ireland has experienced violent conflict, the boundaries of which are shaped by religious identification. Although the violence has significantly decreased since the late 1990s, its legacy remains. Research evidences a complex relationship between religious and spiritual beliefs and mental well-being, there is a lack of research about how political conflict, in which religion plays a dominant role, may shape how beliefs may shape the impact of faith on mental health. This article draws upon the views and experiences of mental health service users’ from a qualitative study about religion, spirituality, mental health and social work practice. Participants’ accounts state that while the role of religion and spirituality within mental health was recognised, its exploration was marked with questions of legitimacy. This article proposes that support is needed for service users to both acknowledge this aspect of their mental well-being and promote their having choice about its inclusion in their mental health care.     

Religion,Health, and Psychological Well-Being

This study compares the effects of religiosity on health and well-being, controlling for work and family. With 2006 GSS data, we assess the effects of religiosity on health and well-being, net of job satisfaction, marital happiness, and financial status. The results indicate that people who identify as religious tend to report better health and happiness, regardless of religious affiliation, religious activities, work and family, social support, or financial status. People with liberal religious beliefs tend to be healthier but less happy than people with fundamentalist beliefs. Future research should probe how religious identity and beliefs impact health and well-being.     

Parental Participation in Religious Services and Parent and Child Well-Being: Findings from the National Survey of America’s Families

Using data from the 1999 and 2002 National Survey of America’s Families, a large-scale nationally representative sample, this study finds that parental religious attendance is positively associated with parent self-rated health, parent mental well-being, positive parenting attitudes, child health, and child school engagement. Although the strength of these associations varies to some extent according to socio-demographic factors, the interactive patterns are not consistently predictable. Moreover, parental health and well-being and positive attitudes toward parenting appear to be important pathways linking parental religious attendance to child well-being. These findings suggest that opportunities for participation in local religious services offered by faith-based organizations may be fruitful avenues through which the government and society can help American families enhance parent and child well-being.     

Sense of community among Muslims in the Brazil–Paraguay border: narratives of belonging and generational differences

ABSTRACT

The so-called ‘Triple Frontier’—the border between Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina—is the ‘host society’ of an important Muslim community, composed mainly of Lebanese immigrants and their descendants born in Brazil and Paraguay. In less than two decades, Shi’i and Sunni Arab Muslims created mosques, religious centres, a cemetery, and three schools. Mosques, schools, and religious centres are spaces for the production of a sense of community. The institutional discourse of these entities emphasises the connection between religion and community origin, considering Islam as part of ‘Arab culture’. Taking generational differences into account, this article aims to analyse the narratives of plural identity expressed in the meanings attributed to the immigrants’ self-identification as Muslims. Based on fieldwork in the South American border area, this work aims to shed light on the way in which immigrants and their descendants reinterpret their religious belonging, informed by the new experience of living in multi-religious societies.     

Spiritual well-being and its predictors among Iranian adolescent girls, 2014–2015

Today, numerous studies are focused on spiritual well-being. This study aimed to determine the status of spiritual well-being and its predictors among adolescent girls. The participants in this cross-sectional study were 520 adolescents living in Tabriz, Iran. Samples were selected through cluster sampling method. The ‘spiritual well-being’ and ‘socio-demographic characteristics’ questionnaires were used. Multivariate linear regression was used to determine the predictors of spiritual well-being. The mean score of spiritual well-being was 90.22 (SD: 16.25), ranging from 20 to 120. Multivariate linear regression showed a significant relationship between spiritual well-being and the factors including parents’ belief for their children’s participation in religious ceremonies, sufficiency of family income for expenses and type of residence. The results show that the level of spiritual well-being in the girls is average to high, and considering the critical impact of spiritual well-being on the health, strategies are required to improve the adolescents’ spiritual well-being.     

The Measurement of Adult Intelligence,and the Requisites of a General Intelligence Test

Abstract

The relationships were examined between selected socipdemographic variables and perceptions of well-being among residents 60 years and older of metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas in the United States. Multiple regression models were used in analyzing data from the 1982–1991 NORC General Social Survey. Such sociodemographic variables as gender, race, marital status, education, financial status, place of residence, religious membership, and religious attendance were independent variables. A composite score of perceptions of well-being was the dependent variable. Race, marital status, education, financial status, religious attendance, and place of residence were important to well-being; gender and religious membership were not significant. The effects of nonmetropolitan living also significantly enhanced perceptions of well-being. Other facets of mental health in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas were also examined.     

The Effect of Religion-Supported Programs on Health-Related Behaviors in Adolescence

Much research has found a relationship between religion and teens?? health related behaviors. The majority of this research focuses on personal religious beliefs and behaviors. But, many religious organizations also sponsor nonreligious activities. There is reason to think that nonreligious programs sponsored by religious organizations will be more likely than school and community-based extracurricular programs to be associated with healthier behaviors, even for youth who are not personally religious. The current study compares the influence of involvement in nonreligious activities that are supported by religious and other organizations for teen health outcomes. Using two waves of longitudinal data from the National Study of Youth and Religion the current study finds that involvement in religion-supported programs is associated with feelings of well-being, better physical health, less alcohol use, and delayed initiation into first sex. Conversely, involvement in activities sponsored by nonreligious organizations is associated with more alcohol use and initiation into sex.     

Examining Islamic Associations of Pakistani and Bangladeshi Immigrants in Greece

Abstract

Since the mid-1970s the territory of Greece has turned from an emigration to an immigration space. A considerable number among the thousands of immigrants that arrive every year in the country are of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin and of Muslim faith. Their Muslim background plays a significant role in the organisation of their communities. Islam is a strong factor when it comes to the development of their social life and in this sense it influences the process of immigrants' acculturation within the host society. The informal worship place (informal mosque) is the space where the faithful fulfil their religious duties, meet each other and spend much of their free time discussing and exchanging views on mundane and more serious matters. However, the majority of the informal mosques are related to various Islamic associations which hold their own views on religion, society and life. The Pakistani and the Bangladeshi Islamic associations in Greece fall into two broad categories: the missionary movements and groups and the organisations with a ‘political dimension’. An examination of the Islamic associations' discourse, activities and aims shows that the organisations of the first category promote a very conservative stance for their constituencies towards the host society, whereas those of the second category encourage the immigrants to integrate, while preserving, however, their ‘Islamic values’. Meanwhile, the efforts of the Greek state and society to integrate the Muslim immigrants with a long presence in the country lack in determination and effectiveness.     

Religious practices and networks of belonging in an immigrant congregation: the German-speaking Lutheran congregation in Dublin

This article explores how members of the German-speaking Lutheran church in Dublin develop their networks of belonging by taking part in social practices in their congregation. The article addresses the intersection of religious life, migration experience, and belonging. Based on qualitative fieldwork, we assess how social practices embedded in religious activities and beliefs reshape the sense of belonging among members of this congregation. We study the congregation through a material approach while paying attention to its actual religious and social life. The study observes how participation in the social life of the congregation enables its members to create multiple senses of belonging—ethno-cultural, religious, and social belonging. The social life of the congregation aids the preservation of immigrants’ ethno-cultural particularities, societal adaptation, and sense of belonging to their religious community.     

The Siting of Churches and Mosques as an Indicator of Christian–Muslim Relations

The state of relations between Christians and Muslims can be difficult to assess, particularly on a micro scale. Analysing where and why places of worship are located can be an important indicator of the complexities of inter-religious relations. This paper uses examples and case studies from across time and space to demonstrate how changes to the religious landscape can help ascertain degrees of tolerance and intolerance. These changes can come about through such methods as allowing mosques or churches to be built as a sign of tolerance, destroying or converting mosques or churches as a sign of intolerance, building a place of worship adjacent to another place of worship out of either respect or a sense of superiority, and limiting the location in order to keep the minority religious group in its place.     

Age and Gender Variations in Healthy Immigrant Effect: a Population Study of Immigrant Well-Being in Canada

The healthy immigrant effect (HIE) is the phenomenon in which immigrants show better health than their native-born counterparts but this healthier condition declines with length of residence. This study investigated whether (1) immigrants also show better adaptation than non-immigrants as well as better health, (2) length of residence affects their health and adaptation differently, and (3) differential outcomes are found for different age and gender groups. Utilizing the Canadian Community Health Survey (2011–2012) data, immigrants (N?=?17,555) and non-immigrants (N?=?103,579) were divided into adolescents (15–19 years old), adults (20–49), older adults (50–64), and seniors (65–74) to examine their subjective general and mental health, diagnosed chronic and psychological illnesses, and self-reported daily stress, life satisfaction and sense of belonging. After controlling for key demographics, HIE was found to be more robust in health than adaptation. In general, recent immigrants reported better health conditions than long-term immigrants; however, the two did not differ with daily stress or life satisfaction. The older adult immigrants were the only segment of the immigrant population who did not display HIE; within the immigrant population, working-aged long-term adult immigrants were those experiencing negative well-being in both health and adaptation compared to the same-aged recent immigrants. Regarding diagnosed psychological illnesses, immigrants yielded no difference by age, gender, or length of residence, indicating ‘reluctant’ views on seeking professional help for mental health were persistently held by both recent and long-immigrants. The findings suggest that health policy needs to take into consideration age-related life stages, and enhancement of mental health awareness for immigrant well-being.     

The Impact of Christianity on Therapy with Latino Families

Unquestioned patriarchal beliefs prescribed by religion often place women and racial and sexual minorities in positions of victimization. In the therapeutic framework, “God” represents unquestioned values that must be challenged and evaluated in order to have a transformative effect. As a result of the increase in the number of Latino immigrants to the United States, it is inevitable for therapists to work with Latino families, a highly religious population. The purpose of this paper is to explore, through a feminist perspective, the role of Christianity and the feminist movement in Latin America and the impact of Christianity on therapists’ work with Latino families.     

Tracking the Emotional Cost of Immigration: Ethno-religious Differences and Women’s Mental Health

The challenges of the settlement process can at times give way to persistent feelings of sadness, loneliness, and despair for immigrant women. Based on analysis of the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada, this article shows that immigrant women’s self-reported experiences of mental health vary at arrival and over the course of the settlement process because of the intersection of pre- and post-migration factors. The results show how ethnic origins and religious differences intersect with women’s main activities in Canada and influence multiple mental health trajectories. Immigrant women strategically pursue different post-migration pathways because some are more likely to find the social interactions of employment contexts emotionally distressing while for others shouldering responsibilities for full-time care work in the home leads to mental health problems. Still others who study to retrain or get a Canadian degree find the experience detrimental to their emotional health. However, these very same activities can be conducive to mental well-being for women with different ethno-religious backgrounds. The results illustrate that the intersection of ethnicity, religion, and gender in a stratified Canadian society is complex and produces a range of mental health outcomes. Concerns are raised about the high emotional toll of racialized Canadian workplaces and the stress that some employed Muslim women report. An awareness of influences on immigrant women’s mental health can assist employers and public service providers as well as members of cultural associations and religious groups in providing appropriate social support for them in the early months and years after arrival.     

On the Role of Mental Health Activities for Teachers’ Work and Life

Everyday behavior is getting increasingly attention, both in the prevention of mental impairment and the promotion of mental health – within and beyond the work context. The present study aimed to identify the importance of mental health activities for well-being and positive functioning of teachers, while taking affectivity into account. Teachers are confronted with various stressors, and identifying predictors of teachers’ well-being and positive functioning is important, not only for teachers’ personal health, but also for their students’ well-being and achievement. Based on the Broaden and Build (B&B) theory and Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, we assumed that (1) the practice of mental health activities is associated with well-being (i.e., positive mental health) and positive functioning (i.e., healthy and unhealthy work-related behavior and experiences), and that (2) mental health activities mediate the association between affectivity and the respective outcomes. These assumptions were tested in a sample of 326 German teachers (75% female, age: M = 44, SD = 11.85). The practice of mental health activities was associated with more positive mental health, more healthy work-related behavior and experiences, and less unhealthy work-related behavior and experiences. Moreover, mental health activities partly explained the relationship between affectivity and the respective outcomes. The present findings indicate the potential of mental health activities for mental health promotion in teachers but future studies are recommended in order to establish causal effects.