Amanah and Muslim Identity: Relationships with Religious and Psychological Adjustment in Malaysia.

Amanah refers to the accountability of Muslims to their community. In Malaysian Muslim university students (N = 209), an Amanah Scale predicted a stronger sense of identity along with more adaptive religious and psychosocial functioning. Multiple regression analyses identified Accountability to Society as especially influential, but Accountability to Allah exhibited at least some problematic implications. Amanah mediated Identity linkages with some measures of religious and psychological adjustment, but also suppressed Identity relationships with greater self-knowledge and lower anxiety. These data confirmed the importance of communal commitments in Muslim mental health, suggested that accountability may have limited liabilities as well as more obvious psychosocial advantages, and identified possible complexities in the assessment of Accountability to Allah.

On the links between positive religious coping, satisfaction with life and depressive symptoms among a multinational sample of Muslims.

This study tested the levels and consequences of positive religious coping among a multinational sample of Muslims. The sample consisted of 706 university students recruited in three Muslim countries: Israel/Palestine, Turkey and Malaysia. Participants' average age was 22.61, and 65% of them were females. This investigation applied a cross-sectional comparative methodology. Measures used: demographics, positive religious coping, satisfaction with life and depressive symptoms. The findings indicated that (a) participants reported high levels of positive religious coping usage, and Malaysians scored significantly higher in this regard than both Palestinians and Turks; (b) positive religious coping correlated positively with satisfaction with life but was not linked to depressive symptoms and (c) the magnitude of correlation between positive and satisfaction with life was significantly higher among Malaysians than among both Palestinians and Turks. The findings suggest that to understand the implications of positive religious coping for the health and well-being of Muslims, a detailed and nuanced analysis is needed.

Relationships between Religious Struggles and Well-Being among a Multinational Muslim Sample: A Comparative Analysis.

This investigation applied a cross-sectional comparative methodology to examine the levels, predictors, and consequences of religious struggles among a multinational sample of 706 Muslims recruited in three universities in Israel/Palestine, Turkey, and Malaysia. Participants were asked to provide demographics and complete measures of religious struggles, satisfaction with life, and generalized anxiety. Three main findings emerged from the study: (1) In general, participants reported low levels of religious struggles; (2) Turks scored significantly higher than both Palestinians and Malaysians on religious struggles; (3) higher levels of generalized anxiety were predicted by higher levels of religious struggles among Malaysians only, and lower levels of satisfaction with life were predicted by higher levels of religious struggles among Palestinians and Turks only. These findings suggest that the links between religious struggles and health and well-being among Muslims are complex, and call for a nuanced detailed analysis of the religious struggles phenomenon among this population.