Effect of religious orientation on university students’ mental health

Background and Purpose of Study: Adherence to religion is associated with a healthier lifestylewhich affects people’s mental health. Mental unity is a key to health personality. Among valuesystems, religion is the most capable of creating this unity. The present research, therefore, aimsto investigate how intrinsic and extrinsic religious orientation related to university students’mental health.Materials and Methods: The present comparative research was conducted on the students ofHormozgan University of Medical Sciences in 2015. The sample size was estimated to be 200. Tobe on the safe side, however, 252 subjects were selected from the target population. To collectthe required data, Alport Syndrome Questionnaire as well as the General health Questionnaire(GHQ) were used. Descriptive and inferential statistics (ANOVA, Spearman’s test of correlationcoefficient, etc.) were used to analyze the data via SPSS v.19.Findings: According to the findings, 167 subjects were female (66.3%) and 85 (33.7%) were male.As for age, 118 subjects were 20-22 years of age (48.4%) which had the highest frequency.Conclusion: A comparison of male and female subjects in term of mental health revealed thatwomen and men were significantly different as concerns their religious orientation (intrinsic andextrinsic). The correlation of multiple aspects of mental health and religious orientation revealeda significant positive correlation between social functioning, depression and intrinsic religiousorientation.

Keywords:

religious , students , mental