Depression Severity and Hopelessness among Turkish University Students According to Various Aspects of Religiosity

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between various aspects of religiosity (experiencing the existence of God, performing namaz (a specific prayer performed five times a day in Islam), fasting, praying, and abjuration) on depression severity and hopelessness in Turkish-Muslim university students. The Beck Depression Inventory and Beck Hopelessness Scale was administered to 634 students. The findings showed internal experience of the existence of God and frequency of performing namaz differentiated depression severity. As having an internal connection to God reduced depression severity, increased frequency of performing namaz was associated with higher levels of depressive symptomatology. Depression severity varied according to the fasting habits in a nonlinear fashion. Individuals who never fasted had the lowest levels of depression, whereas individuals who sometimes fasted had the highest levels of depression. Depression severity did not vary according to the frequency of prayer and abjuration. A decrease in hopelessness was observed among individuals who experienced a strong connection to God. Those who never prayed and always prayed showed comparable levels of hopelessness. Levels of hopelessness did not vary according to the frequency of performing namaz, fasting, or abjuration. The findings partially indicated that intrinsically religious individuals had lower levels of depression and hopelessness. No linear relationships were observed between depression and hopelessness and patterns of performing namaz, fasting, praying, and abjuration.

Bullying Experience among Adolescents with a Turkish Migration Background in Germany: Ethnic Class Composition, Integration, and Religiosity as Protective Factors?

“…In general, religiosity shows positive associations to prosocial behavior [60] and negative relationships to depressive symptoms [58], but contradicting links with aggressive/violent behavior [61,62]. However, the specific role of religiosity in bullying experience remains a research desideratum addressed by our study.…”

“…The analyses presented here showed that adolescents that engage in active bullying did so independently of their religiosity, i.e., they could not activate the aggression-regulative potential of religiosity, which is usually found in Muslim-majority countries [60,61]. Secondly, high religiosity was accompanied by a lower level of victimization and bullying-victimization [64], even taking into account several other factors, which seems to indicate that religiosity has a salutogenic effect [54][55][56] and acts as a buffer against highly negative experiences [58,59]. Thirdly, religiosity did not play any role in the bullying-depressiveness relationship.…”

“…In general, religiosity, in regard to individual lived religion (which encompasses religious behavior, cognition, and emotion), has been proven to be a predominantly salutogenic factor among Muslims [54][55][56] showing positive links with, for example, life satisfaction and happiness [50,57]. More specifically, the high religiosity of Turks was found to be a protective factor against depressive symptoms [58] and suicidality [59]; furthermore, it was shown to play a positive role in prosocial behavior [60]. The relation between religiosity and aggressive/violent behavior among adolescents seems to influence bullying experience but is empirically controversial: While a negative link could be empirically shown in Muslim-majority countries [61], no correlation between Muslim religiosity and violent behavior, not even a positive one, was revealed in the context of migration to Germany when confounding variables were controlled [62].…”

A Value Model for Depressive Symptoms and Hopelessness Among University Students in Turkey

“…Consequently, spirituality might have failed to protect individuals from experiencing feelings of depression and hopelessness. Previous research has also showed that there was a positive correlation between depressive symptoms and extrinsically oriented religiosity (Cotton et al, 2005;Lesniak, Rudman, Rector, & Eklin, 2006;Murray-Swank et al, 2006); and a negative relationship between depressive symptoms and intrinsically oriented religiosity (Yapici & Bilican, 2014). Finally, positive emotions and responses to depressive symptoms were not assessed in this study.…”

20201218

“…The positive impact of religiosity has been extensively studied by researchers primarily from the Middle East. These studies have noted that increased religiosity served as a buffer against depression and anxiety and had a positive relationship to happiness and wellbeing (e.g., Yapici & Bilican, 2014;Abdel-Khalek, 2007;Abdel-Khalek & Naceur, 2007;Vasegh & Mohammadi, 2007). Similarly, a study in the U.K. found that Muslims minorities had the lowest levels of psychological distress when compared to other faith groups (Dabbagh, Johnson, King, & Blizard, 2012).…”