Disappointment with and Uncertainty about God Predict Heightened COVID-19 Anxiety among Persian Muslims

Religiosity is often associated with positive mental health outcomes. Religiosity may also mitigate COVID-19 concerns. In a sample of 553 Persian-speaking Muslims, we investigated the extent to which specific beliefs about God (Allah) were associated with four negative mental health outcomes: depres...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Religions
Authors: Saraei, Mohammadamin (Author) ; Johnson, Kathryn A. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: MDPI 2023
In: Religions
Year: 2023, Volume: 14, Issue: 1
Further subjects:B God representations
B Covid-19
B Muslim
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Summary:Religiosity is often associated with positive mental health outcomes. Religiosity may also mitigate COVID-19 concerns. In a sample of 553 Persian-speaking Muslims, we investigated the extent to which specific beliefs about God (Allah) were associated with four negative mental health outcomes: depression, anxiety, stress, and COVID-19 anxiety. Consistent with the results of English-speaking samples, we found that religiosity, belief in God’s benevolence, psychological closeness to God, and positive attitudes toward God were negatively correlated with depression, stress, and anxiety yet uncorrelated with COVID-19 anxiety. Belief in God’s authoritarian attributes was positively correlated with depression, stress, and anxiety yet, again, uncorrelated with COVID-19 anxiety. In contrast, uncertainty about God’s attributes and negative attitudes toward God were positive predictors of COVID-19 anxiety, even after controlling for general religiosity, depression, stress, anxiety, and sex. We conclude that, whereas religiosity and belief in God had very little influence, uncertainty about and disappointment with God were likely associated with greater anxiety about COVID-19.
ISSN:2077-1444
Contains:Enthalten in: Religions
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.3390/rel14010074