The association between religiosity, generalized self-efficacy, mental health, and happiness in Arab college students.

Research is rare on the relationship between religiosity and subjective well-being using Arab participants. The aim of the present study was to explore the associations between religiosity, generalized self-efficacy, mental health, and happiness. A sample ( N = 702) of Muslim Arab college students was recruited. They responded to four scales as follows: the self–rating scale of religiosity, the self–rating scale of happiness, the Arabic Scale of Self–Efficacy, and the Arabic Scale of Mental Health. The results indicated that male students obtained significantly higher mean total scores on self-efficacy and mental health than did their female counterparts. All of the Pearson correlations between the study scales were statistically significant and positive in both men and women. A principal components analysis identified a single component which could labeled “Mental health, well-being and religiosity”. It appears that participants who see themselves as religious are more likely to see themselves as self-efficacious and to have greater levels of mental health and happiness. Because the strongest association was found between self–efficacy and mental health in men and women, enhancing self–efficacy may be a useful intervention to improve mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]