Investigating Religiosity And Exploring The Relationship Between Religiosity And Mental Health:a National Survey Among Chinese Undergraduates

Research Objects and SignificanceIn recent two or three decades, the relationship between religion and mental health has been increasingly examined in foreign countries. By far most of the studies tend to reach a general consensus that religiosity in general is positively associated with mental health outcomes. e.g., religiosity was found to be positively related to positive mental health indicators, such as subjective well-being, while inversely correlated with depression, anxiety, suicide and other negative mental health indicators. Yet most of studies are conducted based on a Western context. The above conclusions therefore may suffer from somewhat sampling bias in race or region and thus certainly cannot be directly applied to non-religious countries like China. On the other hand, the religion-mental health research field in Mainland China is still in its infancy; few studies have been conducted from an empirical perspective, and this field in China is still lack of mature religiosity measurement tools, especially the well-established and repeatedly tested ones. In addition, the number of religion believers in China is increasing year by year. Therefore, exploring the situation of religiosity and the relationship of religion and mental health may generate fruitful results which have both theoretical and practical significance. In this study, two religiosity scales are firstly translated and revised, and their psychometric properties are evaluated as well; then the current situation of religiosity among Chinese undergraduates is assessed, and the relationship of religion and mental health is analysed using the data of a cross-sectional survey.Research MethodsThe main research method used in this study are:Item analysis, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis (structural equation modeling), internal consistency reliability and split-half reliability test, one way anova and multiple regression analysis, etc.1. ProcedureFirstly, DUREL and HIRS are translated, back translated and proofread to form their original Chinese version. A survey based on convenient sample is conducted after that, and the items of the above two scale are modified based on the results of item analysis and feedback from the sample during a group discussion. Next, we conduct another survey to re-analysis the items and to confirm the final version of these scales. Finally, the final version is used in a national survey of college students (student sample obtained by random stratified sampling). The results of this survey are applied to evaluate the psychometric properties of these two scales on one thing, and used to assess the current situation of Chinese undergraduates’religiosity on another. Meanwhile, the relationship of religion and mental health is examined as well.2. Participants(1) We recruited a convenient sample of 114 college students from a university in Guangzhou City.101 valid questionnaires were received (88.60%), with 33 males, and 68 females. The participants were 21.792 years old on average (SD 0.898).(2) The second time survey recruited a convenient sample of 339 college students from a university in Guangzhou, with 260 of them valid (76.70%). The participants were 18.705 years old on average (SD 0.808), of which 88 were males and 172 females.(3) A stratified sampling procedure was adopted to recruit the sample of the national survey.5851 undergraduates were recruited in total, with 5445 of them replied validly (93.06%). The participants were 19.496 years old on average (SD 1.259), of which 1939 were males and 3516 were females.3. MeasurementsDuke University Religion Index (DUREL), Hoge’s Intrinsic Religiosity Scale (HIRS), Meaning of Life Scale (MLQ), Self-Esteem Scale (SES), Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS), Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS); SPSS 19.0 and LISREL8.80 software packagesResults:1) Validity:Exploratory Factor Analysis of DUREL indicates a two-factor model, which explained total variance by 71.371% cumulatively; Confirmatory Factor Analysis shows that RMSEA 0.069, NNFI 0.97, CFI 0.99, GFI0.99, and SRMR0 0.029; EFA for Hoge’s Intrinsic Religiosity Scale shows that the scale has two factors, which explain 54.689% of the total variance cumulatively; confirmatory factor analysis shows that RMSEA0.087, NNFI0.95, CFI0.96, GFI 0.95, and SRMR 0.043. Indicators of these two models generally meet the basic requirements of model fit, demonstrating that the revised Chinese version of DUREL and Hoge’s IR Scale have excellent construct validity.2) Reliability:the reliability coefficients of DUREL and Hoge’s IR Scale range from 0.751-0.821, and their sub-scales’ range from 0.533-0.848. The Extrinsic Religiosity sub-scale has the lowest coefficient, yet in general the two scales have acceptable reliabilities.3) The current situation of Religiosity among Chinese undergraduates:15.35% of all the students sampled assert themselves as religious; the mean scores of religiosity are as follows:Organizational Religious Activity 1.487±0.718, Non-Orgnizational Religious Activity 1.471±0.862, Intrinsic Religiosity 10.526±4.567, and Extrinsic Religiosity 5.816±2.512; 62.0% students report "never participated in organizational religious activities", while 69.3% students report "never involved in non-organizational activities".4) The Characteristics of Chinese students’Religiosity:Students with different religious affiliation are significantly different on Religiosity. Male and Female show significant difference in Intrinsic Religiosity, with Female scores significant higher than male (P<0.001); There are significant family residence differences among Non-organizational Behavior, Intrinsic and Extrinsic Religiosity respectively, with undergraduates that come from metropolitan have the highest level of religiosity; Students that have different races and grades are significantly different on the religiosity as well (P<0.05).5) Undergraduates who have different religious backgrounds college students appear to have a significant difference in the level of different mental health indicators (P<0.05):atheists have the highest mental health level in most indicators, while Taoists and Buddhists have relatively higher level of meaning in life; the Buddhists’ social support level are significantly higher than other groups besides the atheist in non-religion groups.6) The relationship between religion and mental health indicators: Organizational and Non-organizational religious behavior are positively related to sense of meaning in life, anxiety, depression and social support (P<0.05), organizational religious behavior and intrinsic religiosity are also positively related to life satisfaction (P<0.05); Intrinsic and Extrinsic religiosity are positively correlated with anxiety and depression respectively, which inversely correlated with self-esteem (P<0.001).7) After controlling for age, gender, place of residence, marriage or relationship status and social support, religiosity’s regression effect is still significant on depression, anxiety and life satisfaction (P<0.001); Intrinsic and Extrinsic religiosity has significant effect on depression (P<0.001); In addition, IR and ER have an significant effect on life satisfaction as well (P<0.001).8) Mediating effect analysis:the mediating effect of meaning of life is significant(P<0.05). Meaning in life contributes to 39.12% of the total regression effect of Organizational religious behavior on life satisfaction.Conclusion1) Duke University Religion Index Chinese revised version and Hoge’s Intrinsic Religiosity Scale Chinese revised version have good internal consistency, split-half reliability, content validity and construct validity in general, and they can be used as efficient tools in measuring multi-dimensions religiosity among varies religious groups.2) 15.35% undergraduates in mainland China consider themselves as religious.3) Female, ethnic minorities, Senior college students, urban population that have higher level of religiosity than male, Han nationality, lower grades students and students from rural areas.4) In general religiosity is positively correlated with positive indicators of mental health, while it is also positively associated with the negative indicators; the atheists among them have the highest level of mental health In addition, meaning of life play an mediating role in the relationship of religiosity and life satisfaction.Innovations of the ResearchThe psychometric properties of the two scales introduced have been tested among a national survey of Chinese college students, which can be further used to assess religiosity in large cross-sectional investigations in Mainland China. Meanwhile, this study initially reported the current situation and characteristics of religiosity of Chinese undergraduates. In addition, the sample involved is by far the largest and most representative one in examining the relationship of religion and mental health in China.LimitationsThe bais of the national samples is significant, since a large amount of them are freshmen, and there are significantly more female, etc.; Test-retest reliability analysis is yet to be conducted, and the statistical test power is relatively low since in general only a small part of the samples are religious, etc.