Relationship Between Religious Attitude and Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Symptoms in University Students in Iran

A considerable proportion of young adults studying at universities have a mental disorder. Previous research has shown a negative relationship between various religiosity and psychopathology measures, with different strengths of this correlation depending on the religiosity measure. The aim of the present study is to investigate the strength of association between religious attitude and depression, anxiety and stress in Iranian university students. Thirty-three students from two Iranian universities filled in the Religious Attitude Scale for University Students (RASUS), the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-42). Religious attitude correlates negatively with all psychopathological variables with a moderate effect size (e.g., with BDI-II: r = -.47; p = .006). When dividing the sample in low vs. high religious people, there were significantly more students without depression symptoms in the high religious attitude group than in the low group.