Vulnerable—Not zealous: Muslim converts experience greater distress when experiencing religious struggle.

Abstract

Muslim converts are an understudied group whose mental health needs are largely unknown, although they are often viewed as more zealous than lifelong believers. While research shows that greater religiousness/ spirituality (R/S) is associated with better mental health for Muslims living in the United States (MLUS), it is unclear how this may apply to converts. Our study, comprised of 350 MLUS (n = 77 converts) acquired via an online panel aggregate, utilized multigroup structural equation modeling to assess the impact of adaptive (e.g., positive coping) and maladaptive (i.e., religious struggle and punishing Allah reappraisals [PAR]) Islamic R/S on psychological distress across conversion status. Converts were not more zealous than their counterparts, endorsing lower adaptive R/S scores. Surprisingly, greater adaptive R/S was associated with greater psychological distress in general. As expected, greater PAR and religious struggle were associated with greater psychological distress, yet the relationship between religious struggle and distress was stronger in converts compared to lifelong Muslims. These findings suggest that highly distressed MLUS may be especially in need of psychological services, as studies have demonstrated adaptive R/S alone has not been enough to reduce distress. Second, converts may be especially vulnerable to crises of faith when compared with lifelong Muslims, which may be missed if clinicians assume a higher level of "zealousness" due to a common but potentially inaccurate belief. Muslim converts may benefit from therapy that aims to better integrate them into the Muslim community and uncovers and helps to alleviate stressors associated with shifts in religious identity. Public Significance StatementThis is the second study to demonstrate that Muslim converts living in the United States do not demonstrate greater zealousness compared to lifelong believers, and to the contrary, indicated lower levels of adaptive religiousness/spirituality (R/S). This study extends this work further, finding Muslim converts seem especially vulnerable to religious struggle and would likely benefit from therapies that take R/S factors into account.