E CAMDEN SCHIZOPH

Article

International Journal of
Social Psychiatry
58(2) 138–145
Constructions of religiosity, © The Author(s) 2010
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subjective well-being, anxiety, sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav

DOI: 10.1177/0020764010387545

and depression in two cultures: isp.sagepub.com

Kuwait and USA

Ahmed M. Abdel-Khalek1 and David Lester2

Abstract
Introduction: The aim of the present study was to explore the associations of religiosity with subjective well-being
(SWB) and psychopathology (anxiety and depression) among college students recruited from two different cultures,
Kuwait (n = 192) and the USA (n = 158).
Method: The students responded to the following scales in their native languages, Arabic and English, respectively:
the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire, the Love of Life Scale, the Kuwait University Anxiety Scale and the Center for
Epidemiological Studies – Depression Scale. They also responded to six self-rating scales assessing happiness, satisfaction
with life, mental health, physical health, religiosity and strength of religious belief.
Results: The Kuwaiti students obtained higher mean scores on religiosity, religious belief and depression than did their
American counterparts, whereas American students had higher mean scores on happiness and love of life. Two factors
were extracted: ‘SWB versus psychopathology’ and ‘Religiosity’.
Conclusion: Based on the responses of the present two samples, it was concluded that those who consider themselves
as religious experienced greater well-being.

Keywords
anxiety, Christian, depression, Muslim, psychology of religion, psychopathology, religiosity, subjective well-being

Introduction
Recent years have witnessed an increasing number of and Wong, 2006; Richards and Bergin, 1997; Soydemir
books and research studies on the psychology of religion et al., 2004; Swinyard et al., 2001).
(e.g. Argyle, 2000; Emmons and Paloutzian, 2003; Gor- It is important to note, however, that some studies have
such, 1988; Loewenthal, 2000; Pargament, 1997; Wulff, failed to find an association between religiosity and SWB
1997), although interest in studying the psychological (Francis et al., 2003; Lewis, 2002; Lewis et al., 2000),
aspects of religion dates back more than a century (Galton, although the number of these studies is small.
1872; Hall, 1882; James, 1902; Starbuck, 1899). The gen- As for the relationship between religiosity and psychopa-
eral objective of the present study was to explore the asso- thology, numerous studies have indicated negative associa-
ciations of religiosity with subjective well-being (SWB) tions between religiosity and anxiety, depression, neuroticism,
and psychopathology (anxiety and depression) in two dif- suicidality, substance abuse, premature sexual involvement
ferent cultures, Kuwait and the USA. and delinquency (Baetz et al., 2004; Desrosiers and
There is a wealth of research that suggests a positive Miller, 2007; Donahue and Benson, 1995; Loewenthal
association between religiosity and SWB, a construct that
includes happiness, satisfaction with life, love of life, and
physical and mental health (e.g. Ball et al., 2003; Chatters, 1
Kuwait University, Kuwait
2
2000; Ellison, 1991; Ferriss, 2002; Greene and Yoon, 2004; Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, USA
Harris, 2002; Hill and Pargament, 2003; Koenig, 1997, Corresponding author:
2004; Koenig et al., 2001; Larson and Larson, 2003; Levin David Lester, Box 195, Pomona, New Jersey, 08240-0195, USA
and Chatters, 1998; Maselko and Kubansky, 2006; Rew Email: david.lester@stockton.edu

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Abdel-Khalek and Lester 139

and Goldblatt, 1993; Sinha et al., 2007; Walker and cultures; typically, the research is carried out using
Bishop, 2005). participants from only one culture.
Research has been carried out on the relationship Therefore, in this research, respondents from two differ-
between religiosity and both SWB and psychopathology ent cultures were given the same set of questionnaires and
using Arab Muslim participants in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia rating scales. Incidentally, two of the four inventories were
and Algeria (Abdel-Khalek, 2002, 2006a, 2007c, 2008, developed in an Islamic culture by a non-Western psychol-
2009a, 2010; Abdel-Khalek and Lester, 2007, 2009; Abdel- ogist, which makes the study unique. Second, religiosity
Khalek and Naceur, 2007; Al-Kandari, 2003; Baroun, may have different meanings and impact in Christian and
2006). The main results of these studies were twofold: Muslim cultures. Furthermore, the role of religion is very
(a) there was a positive relationship between religiosity and different in the Islamic world than in the Western Christian
SWB, including happiness, satisfaction with life, physical world. Therefore, comparing samples in Islamic and Chris-
health and mental health; and (b) there was a negative rela- tian cultures is important in today’s world, which is focused
tionship between religiosity and psychopathology (neuroti- on the differences between them. There is reason to hypoth-
cism, anxiety and depression). esize that there will be significant differences between the
In addition, a small number of studies have been carried two samples in religiosity in that the Kuwaiti sample might
out using non-Arab Muslims. Jamal and Badawi (1993) obtain a higher mean score on religiosity (Thorson et al.,
studied 325 Muslim immigrants in North America and 1997). This difference in religiosity might have an impact
reported that religiosity was significantly and positively on the correlation between religiosity and both SWB and
related to fewer psychosomatic symptoms, more happiness psychopathology.
in life, greater job satisfaction, greater job motivation, more
organizational commitment and less job turnover. They also
found that religiosity was a buffer against the dysfunctional
Method
consequences of job stress. In Pakistan, Suhail and Chaudhry
Participants
(2004) recruited 1,000 Muslims and found that religious
affiliation was among the better predictors of SWB. In Iran, Two convenience samples were selected. The Kuwaiti sam-
Vasegh and Mohammadi (2007) recruited a sample of 285 ple consisted of 192 Kuwaiti Muslim undergraduates
Muslim medical students and found a negative association enrolled in social science courses at Kuwait University: 47
between religiosity and both anxiety and depression. In Iran men and 145 women, with a mean age of 20.9 years (SD =
also, Fanni Asl et al. (2008) found a significant positive 1.5). The American sample consisted of 158 undergradu-
association between religious beliefs practice and self- ates enrolled in psychology courses at the Richard Stockton
esteem in a sample of 202 Iranian college students. College of New Jersey: 45 men and 113 women, with a
Thorson et al. (1997) compared Kuwaiti and American mean age of 21.6 (SD = 3.8).
college students and found that the Kuwaiti sample obtained
a significantly higher mean score on internal religious
motivation than did their US counterparts. This high score
Scales and questionnaires
on religiosity might have an impact on the association Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ; Hills and Argyle,
between religiosity and other variables. 2002). The OHQ is an improved instrument derived from
The three aims of this study were to (1) examine the differ- the Oxford Happiness Inventory (OHI). The OHI comprises
ences between the Kuwaiti and American college students on 29 items, each involving the selection of one of four options
measures of SWB and psychopathology, (2) examine the that are different for each item. The OHQ includes similar
associations of religiosity with SWB and psychopathology items to those of the OHI, each presented as a single state-
(anxiety and depression), and (3) analyse the correlation ment which can be endorsed on a uniform six-point Likert
matrices to explore the main component(s) or factors(s). It scale. The revised instrument is compact, easy to administer
was hypothesized that (1) there will be significant differences and allows endorsements over an extended range. Sequen-
between the two samples in the psychological traits assessed, tial orthogonal factor analyses of the OHQ have identified a
(2) there will be a significant correlation between religiosity single higher-order factor, which suggests that the construct
and SWB (positively) and psychopathology (negatively), and of well-being it measures is uni-dimensional. The OHQ was
(3) two factors will be extracted from the correlations. translated into Arabic by the first author. Its Cronbach’s a
The present study is unique in a number of ways. First, reliabilities ranged between 0.89 and 0.91, indicating high
the majority of published studies in this field have been car- internal consistency of the Arabic version.
ried out on Western, Anglo-Saxon, English-speaking and Love of Life Scale (LLS; Abdel-Khalek, 2007b). The LLS
Judeo-Christian samples. The Arabic Muslim population is contains 16 short statements (e.g. ‘There are many things
highly under-represented in this field of study. In the same that make me love life’) answered on a five-point Likert for-
vein, cross-cultural studies in this domain are few. Rarely mat, anchored by 1 (No) and 5 (Very much). The total score
has a research paper included respondents from two can range from 16 to 80, with higher scores denoting a higher

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140 International Journal of Social Psychiatry 58(2)

love of life. Cronbach’s a reliability was 0.91, and one-week With the kind permission of the National Institute of
test-retest reliability was 0.81 among college students, indi- Mental Health, the first writer translated the CES-D scale
cating high internal consistency and temporal reliability. into Arabic. Two bilingual PhD psychologists and two PhD
Factor analysis yielded three factors labelled ‘Positive atti- linguists were requested to check the compatibility of
tude towards life’, ‘Happy consequences of love of life’ and meaning between the Arabic and English forms of the scale.
‘Meaningfulness of life’, with moderate inter-factor correla- Suitable revisions and corrections were carried out. As a
tions. Construct validity is indicated by significant positive check on the adequacy of the English to Arabic translation,
correlations with measures of happiness, optimism, self- a PhD linguist who was unfamiliar with the scale translated
esteem, hope, satisfaction with life and extraversion. A factor it back from the Arabic into English. Good results were
analysis of the total scores on the LLS and the last-mentioned achieved. As for the Arabic form, Cronbach’s a reliabilities
six questionnaires yielded a general factor of well-being in were 0.80 and 0.81, while one week test-retest reliability
which the LLS loaded 0.78 onto this factor. A multiple was 0.79 and 0.71 for men and women, respectively. Criterion-
regression revealed that the best predictors of LLS were hap- related validity was 0.74 and 0.83. Validity criteria were
piness, optimism, self-esteem and hope. the SCL-90-D and the Hopkins Symptoms Check List –
Kuwait University Anxiety Scale (KUAS; Abdel-Khalek, Depression Scale.
2000, 2003a). The KUAS has four comparable Arabic, Self-rating scales. Six separate self rating-scales, in the
English, German and Spanish versions. It consists of 20 form of questions, were used to assess happiness, satisfac-
brief statements, each answered on a four-point intensity tion with life, mental health, physical health, religiosity and
scale, anchored by 1 (Rarely) and 4 (Always). In previous religious belief:
studies on Kuwaiti samples, reliabilities of the scale
ranged from 0.88 to 0.92 (Cronbach’s a), and between 1. To what degree do you feel happy in general?
0.70 and 0.93 (test-retest), indicating good internal con- 2. To what degree do you feel satisfied with your life
sistency and temporal stability. The criterion-related in general?
validity of the scale ranged between 0.70 and 0.88 (five 3. What is your estimation of your mental health in
criteria), while the loadings of the scale on a general fac- general?
tor of anxiety were 0.93 and 0.95 in two-factor analyses, 4. What is your estimation of your physical health in
demonstrating the scale’s criterion-related and factorial general?
validity. Discriminant validity of the scale has also 5. What is your level of religiosity in general?
been demonstrated. Factor analysis of the scale items 6. What is the strength of your religious belief when
yielded three factors labelled ‘Cognitive/Affective’, ‘Sub- compared to other persons?
jective’ and ‘Somatic anxiety’. The scale has displayed
good psychometric properties in large Kuwaiti and Arab Each question was followed by a string of numbers from 0
samples of undergraduates (Alansari, 2002, 2004), in to 10. The research participants were requested (a) to
Spanish subjects (Abdel-Khalek et al., 2004), in Saudi respond according to his or her global estimation and gen-
and Syrian subjects (Abdel-Khalek and Al-Damaty, 2003; eral feeling (not their present states), (b) to know that the 0
Abdel-Khalek and Rudwan, 2001), in American subjects is the minimum and that 10 is the maximum score, and (c)
(Abdel-Khalek and Lester, 2003), in German subjects to circle a number which seems to him or her to describe
(Abdel-Khalek et al., 2006) and in British subjects (Abdel- their actual feelings accurately. A high score indicates the
Khalek and Maltby, 2009). rating of the trait or the attribute at a high level. The one
Center for Epidemiologic Studies – Depression Scale week test-retest reliabilities of the six self-rating scales
(CES-D; Radloff, 1977). The CES-D scale is a 20-item self- ranged between 0.76 and 0.88, indicating high temporal
report scale. It was developed to measure depressive symp- stability and corroborating the trait-like nature of the scores.
tomatology in adults in the general population. Items were Criterion-related validity of these scales have been
selected from areas of depressive symptomatology previ- adequately demonstrated (Abdel-Khalek, 2003b, 2006b,
ously described and validated. The items tap areas of 2007a, 2009a). However, single-item self-rating scales
depressed mood, feelings of guilt and worthlessness, feel- have specific limitations. Foremost is the limited range of
ings of helplessness and hopelessness, psychomotor retar- scores, the complexity of these constructs and the influence
dation, loss of appetite and sleep disturbance. The scale of social desirability (Gillings and Joseph, 1996; Leak and
items emphasize the affective component and depressed Fish, 1989; Lewis, 1999; Trimble, 1997).
mood (Katz et al., 1995). Subjects respond to each item on
a four-point scale according to the frequency of occurrence
in the seven days previous to the testing. It has been found
Procedure
to have very high internal consistency and adequate test- The four questionnaires along with the six self-rating scales
retest reliability. Construct validity has also been estab- were administered anonymously to students during small
lished (Radloff, 1977). group sessions in their classrooms. The scales in Arabic

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Abdel-Khalek and Lester 141

Table 1. Mean (M), standard deviation (SD) and t values of the scales in Kuwaiti and US students

Scales Kuwaiti US t p

M SD M SD

Happiness 111.03 8.55 127.25 17.02 10.93 0.0001

Love of life 60.66 8.90 63.24 10.49 2.63 0.01
Happy 7.34 1.70 7.54 1.68 1.13 −
Satisfaction 7.46 1.81 7.31 1.98 0.74 −
Mental 7.22 1.96 7.59 1.73 1.85 −
Physical 7.29 1.81 7.22 1.73 0.34 −
KUAS 35.12 8.94 36.09 11.21 0.91 −
Depression 17.78 11.03 15.16 10.38 2.29 0.02
Religiosity 6.43 1.76 4.68 2.61 7.35 0.0001
Belief 7.14 2.06 4.67 2.80 9.56 0.0001

Table 2. Pearson correlations between the scales for US (the upper matrix) and Kuwaiti (the lower matrix) samples

Happiness Love of life Happy Satis. Mental Physical KUAS Depr. Relig Belief

Happiness − 0.676** 0.705** 0.715** 0.548** 0.487** -0.662** -0.728** 0.205** 0.185**
Love of life 0.617** − 0.548** 0.524** 0.415** 0.217** -0.466** -0.522** 0.252** 0.261**
Happy 0.606** 0.591 ** − 0.707** 0.585** 0.252** -0.662** -0.657** 0.281** 0.245**
Satisfaction 0.578** 0.516** 0.742** − 0.553** 0.367** -0.575** -0.586** 0.193* 0.152
Mental 0.577** 0.485** 0.795** 0.660** − 0.412** -0.526** -0.436** 0.254** 0.267**
health
Physical 0.370** 0.378** 0.470** 0.337** 0.525** − -0.338** -0.352** 0.165* 0.171*
health
KUAS -0.461** -0.355** -0.414** -0.418** -0.441** -0.220** − 0.637** -0.180* -0.167
Depression -0.449** -0.365** -0.453** -0.445** -0.478** -0.250** 0.765** − -0.105 -0.098
Religiosity 0.258** 0.300** 0.440** 0.404** 0.350** 0.297** -0.130 -0.227** − 0.878**
Belief 0.277** 0.213** 0.384** 0.377** 0.399** 0.343** -0.139 -0.186** 0.675** −

were administered to the Kuwaiti students, while American Table 3. Orthogonal (Varimax) two factor solution for the
students were given them in English. The return rate was scales for Kuwaiti and USA students
100% for both samples. SPSS (2009) was used for the sta-
tistical analyses for both samples. Descriptive statistics, Variables Kuwait USA
t-tests, Pearson correlations and principal components anal- Factor 1 Factor 2 Factor 1 Factor 2
ysis were used.
Happiness 0.759 0.233 0.887 -0.154
Love of life 0.670 0.260 0.728 0.020
Results Happy 0.722 0.488 0.845 -0.051
Satisfaction 0.683 0.429 0.811 -0.144
Kuwaiti students obtained higher mean scores on depres- Mental health 0.712 0.446 0.765 0.028
sion and on the self-rating scales of religiosity and strength Physical health 0.386 0.484 0.511 -0.007
of religious belief than did their American counterparts KUAS -0.757 0.004 -0.799 0.225
Depression -0.755 -0.002 -0.802 0.273
(Table 1). On the other hand, American students obtained Religiosity 0.114 0.844 0.381 0.883
higher mean scores on happiness and love of life than did Belief 0.071 0.869 0.369 0.890
their Kuwaiti peers. Eigen value 3.83 2.45 4.85 1.99
The majority of the correlations (93.3%) between the % variance 38.3 24.5 48.5 19.9
Total variance 62.8 68.4
variables in the two countries were significant (Table 2).
The main clusters of significant correlations were centred
on the SWB variables (positive), the SWB and both anxiety
and depression (negative), and the two self-rating scales of two factors were identified in both countries. The unrotated
religiosity and both SWB (positive) and anxiety and depres- factors were rotated using the direct Varimax method
sion (negative). of orthogonal rotation (SPSS, 2009). The two factors
The principal components analysis was used to analyse accounted for 58.3% and 68.4% of the total variance in the
the two correlation matrices of each countries separately. Kuwaiti and American samples, respectively (Table 3). In
Based on the Kaiser Unity test (i.e. the eigenvalue > 1.0), both countries, the first factor is a bipolar one and could be

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142 International Journal of Social Psychiatry 58(2)

labelled ‘Subjective well-being versus psychopathology’, Regarding the associations between the study variables,
whereas the second factor was labelled ‘Religiosity’. the main cluster of significant inter-correlations was cen-
tred on the SWB variables in the two countries, that is, the
happiness and love of life scores as well as the self-ratings
Discussion of happiness, satisfaction with life, mental health and phys-
The study of psychology of religion has received increasing ical health, indicating the convergent validity of these
attention in recent years. Notwithstanding the considerable scales. The second cluster was centred on the negative cor-
amount of work conducted on this topic, research studies relations between all the aforementioned scales and both
using Muslim participants, as well as cross-cultural com- anxiety and depression. Further supporting these results
parisons, are scarce. The threefold hypotheses of the cur- was the extraction of the first factor: ‘SWB versus psycho-
rent investigation have been successfully borne out by pathology’. This factor was present in both countries.
significant results using samples of Kuwaiti Arabic Mus- As for the religiosity and strength of religious beliefs, all
lims and Americans, mainly Christians. correlations with the SWB variables were significant,
Some significant differences were evident between the despite the different mean scores on religiosity and reli-
two student samples. Kuwaitis obtained higher mean scores gious belief in Kuwait (high) and American (low) partici-
on the two self-rating scales of religiosity and strength of reli- pants. Reaching the same result, in spite of the sharp
gious belief than did their American counterparts. This result differences between the two samples in religion, language,
is congruent with a previous finding using the Hoge’s (1972) situation, history and culture, lends more trustworthiness to
Intrinsic Religious Motivation questionnaire with Kuwaiti the present results. The findings of the current investigation
and American college students (Thorson et al., 1997). are compatible with a considerable number of previous
It is particularly noteworthy that reaching compatible studies on different religions and cultures (see above in the
results with questionnaires and self-rating scales may Introduction).
address the criticism against using a single-item measure
of religiosity. As Wills (2009) reported, a single-item mea-
sure is based on the assumption that the individual will
Limitations
assume the most relevant meaning that comes to their mind The findings from the present study must be viewed within
in relation to the subject of the question and answer accord- the limitations imposed by the data. Foremost among them
ingly. Furthermore, deriving equivalent religiosity scales is the limited age range of college students. Therefore, an
for respondents from two different religions is very diffi- important next step in this endeavour would be to replicate
cult, if not impossible. Places or worship and styles of and extend the current investigation using older age groups.
worship differ between religions. For example, a Muslim
religiosity scale (Wilde and Joseph, 1997) has items such
as ‘The five prayers helps me a lot’ and ‘I fast the whole
Conclusion
month of Ramadan’. These items have no identical equiva- As far as the present study on Kuwaiti and American stu-
lent in Christianity. A simple translation into English will dents is concerned, its salient finding is the high score for
not suffice. religiosity among the Kuwaiti students and the high mean
The high mean score of religiosity among Kuwaiti in score for happiness and love of life in the American sample.
comparison with American students may denote more Religiosity was positively associated with all measures of
importance attached to religion in the Kuwaiti Muslim SWB in both cultures, that is, participants with high scores
society as the personal impressions reveal. Most Muslim on religiosity saw themselves as having a higher SWB. The
students are involved daily in the practice of their faith, possibility of using religious involvement in psychotherapy
whereas American students are more secular. As Thorson to assist in ameliorating pathological symptoms and in rais-
et al. (1997) noted, perhaps this illustrates a cultural differ- ing the sense of well-being has been explored by many ther-
ence between perceived freedom to dissent. There is less apists. An understanding of the religious beliefs, which are
social desirability, and less social pressure, in the USA often idiosyncratic, is helpful in understanding the pain
attached to being religious. Alternatively, it simply could experienced by patients in psychotherapy. Fournier (2004)
illustrate a difference between cultures in depth of faith. demonstrated how the religious beliefs of ‘Katie’, a young
American students obtained significantly higher mean woman who killed herself, led her to have an unrealistic
scores for happiness and love of life than did their Kuwaiti expectation of God’s role in her life. Her prayers to God
peers, while the Kuwaiti students obtained a higher mean became more demanding over time, desperate and self-cen-
score on the depression scale than did their American coun- tred. On the other hand, religious beliefs can provide a
terparts. The higher scores for depression among Kuwaiti meaning for life, thereby promoting psychological health
students is congruent with previous results using different (Frankl, 1997). Many therapists have incorporated spiritual-
measures of psychopathology (Adel-Khalek and Lester, ity into psychotherapy (e.g. Pargament, 1997) and the pres-
1999, 2002, 2006; Lester and Abdel-Khalek, 1998a, 1998b). ent results support empirically this growing movement.

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Abdel-Khalek and Lester 143

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