Religious Involvement, Interpersonal Forgiveness and Mental Health and Well-Being Among a Multinational Sample of Muslim
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Religious Involvement, Interpersonal Forgiveness and Mental Health and Well‑Being Among a Multinational Sample of Muslims Hisham Abu‑Raiya1 · Ali Ayten2
© Springer Nature B.V. 2019
Abstract This study tested the links between religious involvement (assessed by religious beliefs and religious practices) and life satisfaction and generalized anxiety, and whether these links are mediated by interpersonal forgiveness. It utilized a sample of 706 university students recruited in three Muslim countries: Israel/Palestine, Turkey and Malaysia, and applied a cross-sectional methodology. Participants provided demographic information, and completed measures of religious beliefs, religious practices, interpersonal forgiveness (which is composed of three factors: hopefulness, avoidance, vengeance), life satisfaction and generalized anxiety. The findings indicated a positive link between religious practices and life satisfaction and a negative link between religious practices and generalized anxiety. Religious beliefs were positively tied to life satisfaction and unrelated to generalized anxiety. The hopefulness and avoidance factors of interpersonal forgiveness partially mediated the links between religious practices and life satisfaction, and the avoidance factor partially mediated the link between religious practices and generalized anxiety. On the other hand, none of the interpersonal forgiveness factors mediated the links between religious beliefs and both outcome measures. The findings suggest that religious practices have stronger connections with the health and well-being of Muslims, and that interpersonal forgiveness is one explanatory mechanism through which religious involvement is linked to health and well-being among this religious group. Keywords Religious involvement · Interpersonal forgiveness · Life satisfaction · Generalized anxiety · Muslims
* Hisham Abu‑Raiya [email protected] 1
Bob Shapell School of Social Work, Tel Aviv University, 69978 Tel Aviv, Israel
2
Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey
13
Vol.:(0123456789)
H. Abu‑Raiya, A. Ayten
1 Introduction Research on the psychology of religion has grown dramatically in the last few decades. This body of research has established clear connections between various indices of religiousness and indices of better health and well-being (for recent reviews, see Koenig et al. 2012; Lucchetti and Lucchetti 2014; Pargament et al. 2013). For instance, empirical studies have linked different indices of religiousness to comfort (e.g., Exline et al. 2000), satisfaction with life (e.g., Dorahy et al. 1998; Ellison and Levin 1998), meaning in life (e.g., Park et al. 2013), self-control (e.g., McCullough and Willoughby 2009), and lower levels of depression and anxiety (Hood et al. 2009; Koenig et al. 2012). However, the vast majority of research on the relationship between religion and health and well-being has been conducted in the United States, focused almost exclusively on Christian populations, and largely neglected people from other traditional faiths (
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