The Relationship Between Intrinsic Religiosity and Resilience Among Tunisian Female University Students
Keywords:
Intrinsic religiosity, resilience, Tunisia, female students
Abstract
This study aimed to explore the relatively under-examined relationship between intrinsic religiosity and resilience among Tunisian female university students. A sample of 244 students participated by completing two scales: the "Arabic Scale of Intrinsic Religiosity" (Abdel-Khalek, 2017) and "The Tunisian Resilience Scale" (Derouiche-El Kamel & Hentati, 2021). Data analysis involved correlation and linear regression methods. A significant positive correlation (p<0.000) emerged between the two variables among the students. Moreover, intrinsic religiosity was found to predict resilience scores (p<0.000). These findings suggest a meaningful association between intrinsic religiosity and resilience among Tunisian female students. The study implies that intrinsic religiosity could serve as a predictive factor for resilience, shedding light on its potential role in fostering resilience among this population.
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References
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3. Allport, G. W. (1963). Behavioral Science, Religion, and Mental Health. Journal of Religion and Health, 2(3), 187-197. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF01533333
4. Allport, G. W., & Ross, J. M. (1967). Personal religious orientation and prejudice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 5(4), 432-443. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0021212
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8. Connor, K. M., & Davidson, J. R. T. (2003). Development of a new Resilience scale: The Connor-Davidson Resilience scale (CD-RISC). Depression and Anxiety, 18(2), 76–82. https://doi.org/10.1002/da.10113
9. Cohen, A. B., Hall, D. E., Koenig, H. G., & Meador, K. G. (2005). Social Versus Individual Motivation: Implications for Normative Definitions of Religious Orientation. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 9(1), 48–61. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327957pspr0901_4
10. Connor, K. M., Davidson, J. R., & Lee, L. C. (2003). Spirituality, resilience, and anger in survivors of violent trauma: a community survey. Journal of traumatic stress, 16(5), 487–494. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025762512279
11. Derouiche-El Kamel S and Hentati Y (2021) Portrait of resilience among Tunisians locked down in times of COVID-19. Traumatology 27(1): 70–77.
12. Dolcos, F., Hohl, K., Hu, Y., & Dolcos, S. (2021). Religiosity and Resilience: Cognitive Reappraisal and Coping Self-Efficacy Mediate the Link between Religious Coping and Well-Being. Journal of religion and health, 60(4), 2892–2905. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-020-01160-y
13. Erdogan, E., Ozdogan, O., & Erdogan, M. (2015). University Students’ Resilience Level: The Effect of Gender and Faculty. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 186, 1262-1267. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.04.047
14. Francis, L. J., Robbins, M., & White, A. (2003). Correlation between religion and happiness: A replication. Psychological Reports, 92(1), 51-52. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.2003.92.1.51
15. Francis, L. J., Tekke, M., & Robbins, M. (2016). The psychometric properties of the Sahin-Francis Scale of Attitude towards Islam revised among Sunni students in Malaysia. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 19(5), 433-439. https://doi.org/10.1080/13674676.2016.1193480
16. French, S., & Joseph, S. (1999). Religiousness and its association with happiness, purpose in life, and self-actualisation. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 2(2), 117-120. https://doi.org/10.1080/13674679908406340
17. Frounfelker, R. L., Tahir, S., Abdirahman, A., & Betancourt, T. S. (2020). Stronger together: Community resilience and Somali Bantu refugees. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 26(1), 22–31. https://doi.org/10.1037/cdp0000286
18. Gan, S. K., Wong, S. W., & Jiao, P. D. (2023). Religiosity, Theism, Perceived Social Support, Resilience, and Well-Being of University Undergraduate Students in Singapore during the COVID-19 Pandemic. International journal of environmental research and public health, 20(4), 3620. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20043620
19. Helmreich, I., Kunzler, A., Chmitorz, A., König, J., Binder, H., Wessa, M., & Lieb, K. (2017). Psychological interventions for resilience enhancement in adults. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2017 (2), 1– 43. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD012527
20. Hill, P. C., Pargament, K. I., Hood, R. W., Jr., McCullough, M. E., Swyers, J. P., Larson, D. B., & Zinnbauer, B. J. (2000). Conceptualizing religion and spirituality: Points of commonality, points of departure. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 30(1), 51–77. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-5914.00119
21. Javanmard, G. H. (2013). Religious beliefs and resilience in academic students. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 84, 744–748. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.06.638
22. Kirkpatrick, L. A., & Hood, R. W. (1990). Intrinsic-extrinsic religious orientation: The boon or bane of contemporary psychology of religion? Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 29(4), 442-462. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1387311
23. Koenig, H. G., McCullough, M., & Larson, D. B. (2001). Handbook of Religion and Health. New York: Oxford University Press.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195118667.001.0001
24. Koenig, H. G. (2007). Religion and remission of depression in medical inpatients with heart failure/pulmonary disease. The Journal of nervous and mental disease, 195(5), 389–395. https://doi.org/10.1097/NMD.0b013e31802f58e3
25. Koenig, H. G. (2009). Research on religion, spirituality, and mental health: a review. Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie, 54(5), 283–291. https://doi.org/10.1177/070674370905400502
26. Lowe, S. R., Hennein, R., Feingold, J. H., Peccoralo, L. A., Ripp, J. A., Mazure, C. M., & Pietrzak, R. H. (2021). Are Women Less Psychologically Resilient Than Men? Background Stressors Underlying Gender Differences in Reports of Stress-Related Psychological Sequelae. The Journal of clinical psychiatry, 83(1), 21br14098. https://doi.org/10.4088/JCP.21br14098
27. Luthar, S. S., Cicchetti, D., & Becker, B. (2000). The construct of resilience: a critical evaluation and guidelines for future work. Child development, 71(3), 543-562. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00164
28. Manciaux, M. (2001). La résilience Un regard qui fait vivre. Études, 395(10), 321-330. https://doi.org/10.3917/etu.954.0321.
29. Manning, L. K., & Miles, A. (2018). Examining the Effects of Religious Attendance on Resilience for Older Adults. Journal of Religion and Health, 57(1), 191-208. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-017-0438-5
30. Masten, A. S. (2001). Ordinary magic. Resilience processes in development. The American psychologist, 56(3), 227–238. https://doi.org/10.1037//0003-066x.56.3.227
31. Masters, K. S., Lensegrav-Benson, T. L., Kircher, J. C., & Hill, R. D. (2005). Effects of Religious Orientation and Gender on Cardiovascular Reactivity Among Older Adults. Research on Aging, 27(2), 221-240. https://doi.org/10.1177/0164027504270678
32. Mosqueiro, B. P., da Rocha, N. S., & Fleck, M. P. (2015). Intrinsic religiosity, resilience, quality of life, and suicide risk in depressed inpatients. Journal of affective disorders, 179, 128–133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2015.03.022
33. Myers, D. G., & Diener, E. (1995). Who is happy? Psychological Science, 6(1), 10-19. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.1995.tb00298.x
34. Peres, J. F., Moreira-Almeida, A., Nasello, A. G., & Koenig, H. G. (2007). Spirituality and resilience in trauma victims. Journal of Religion and Health, 46(3), 343–350. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0101-60832007000700017
35. Puchalski, C., Ferrell, B., Virani, R., Otis-Green, S., Baird, P., Bull, J., Chochinov, H., Handzo, G., Nelson-Becker, H., Prince-Paul, M., Pugliese, K., & Sulmasy, D. (2009). Improving the quality of spiritual care as a dimension of palliative care: the report of the Consensus Conference. Journal of palliative medicine, 12(10), 885–904. https://doi.org/10.1089/jpm.2009.0142
36. Richardson, G. E. (2002). The metatheory of resilience and resiliency. Journal of clinical psychology, 58(3), 307–321. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.10020
37. Rusman, A. A., Zaharim, N. M., & Hashim, I. H. M. (2022). Examining the relationship between religiosity and happiness in Medan, Indonesia: The mediating role of self‐control, self‐regulation, and life satisfaction. Asian Social Work and Policy Review, 17(1), 27–38. https://doi.org/10.1111/aswp.12267
38. Rutten, B.P., Hammels, C., Geschwind, N., Menne-Lothmann, C., Pishva, E., Schruers, K., Van Den Hve, D., Kenis, G., Van Os, J. & Wichers, M. (2013). Resilience in mental health: linking psychological and neurobiological perspectives. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 128(1), 3-20. https://doi.org/10.1111/acps.12095
39. Rutter, M. (2012). Resilience as a Dynamics Concept. Development and Psychopathology, 24(2), 335-344. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0954579412000028
40. Salsman, J. M., & Carlson, C. R. (2005). Religious Orientation, Mature Faith, and Psychological Distress: Elements of Positive and Negative Associations. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 44(2), 201–209. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5906.2005.00276.x
41. Schwalm, F. D., Zandavalli, R. B., de Castro Filho, E. D., & Lucchetti, G. (2022). Is there a relationship between spirituality/religiosity and resilience? A systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies. Journal of health psychology, 27(5), 1218–1232. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359105320984537
42. Sher Ali, M. (Trans.). (2021). The Holy Qur’an. Islam International Publications Limited. Retrieved from https://www.alislam.org/quran/view/?region=E2&CR=&page=675
43. Smith, T. B., McCullough, M. E., & Poll, J. (2003). Religiousness and depression: evidence for a main effect and the moderating influence of stressful life events. Psychological bulletin, 129(4), 614–636. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.129.4.614
44. Smith, M. H., Richards, P. S., & Maglio, C. J. (2004). Examining the Relationship between Religious Orientation and Eating Disturbances. Eating Behaviors, 5(2), 171-180. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1471-0153(03)00064-3
45. Tay, P., & Lim, K. K. (2020). Psychological Resilience as an Emergent Characteristic for Well-Being: A Pragmatic View. Gerontology, 66(5), 476–483. https://doi.org/10.1159/000509210
46. Yalcin-Siedentopf, N., Pichler, T., Welte, A. S., Hoertnagl, C. M., Klasen, C. C., Kemmler, G., Siedentopf, C. M., & Hofer, A. (2021). Sex matters: stress perception and the relevance of resilience and perceived social support in emerging adults. Archives of women's mental health, 24(3), 403–411. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-020-01076-2
2. Abdel-Khalek, A. M., & Tekke, M. (2019). The association between religiosity, well-being, and mental health among college students from Malaysia. Revista Mexicana de Psicología, 36(1), 5-16.
3. Allport, G. W. (1963). Behavioral Science, Religion, and Mental Health. Journal of Religion and Health, 2(3), 187-197. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF01533333
4. Allport, G. W., & Ross, J. M. (1967). Personal religious orientation and prejudice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 5(4), 432-443. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0021212
5. Allport, G. W. (1969). The Person in Psychology: Selected Essays (2nd ed.). Beacon Press.
6. Allport, G. W. (1971). Personality: A Psychological Interpretation (3rd ed.). Constable.
7. Burnett, H. J., Jr, & Helm, H. W., Jr (2013). Relationship between posttraumatic stress disorder, resilience, and religious orientation and practices among university student earthquake survivors in Haiti. International journal of emergency mental health, 15(2), 97–104.
8. Connor, K. M., & Davidson, J. R. T. (2003). Development of a new Resilience scale: The Connor-Davidson Resilience scale (CD-RISC). Depression and Anxiety, 18(2), 76–82. https://doi.org/10.1002/da.10113
9. Cohen, A. B., Hall, D. E., Koenig, H. G., & Meador, K. G. (2005). Social Versus Individual Motivation: Implications for Normative Definitions of Religious Orientation. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 9(1), 48–61. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327957pspr0901_4
10. Connor, K. M., Davidson, J. R., & Lee, L. C. (2003). Spirituality, resilience, and anger in survivors of violent trauma: a community survey. Journal of traumatic stress, 16(5), 487–494. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025762512279
11. Derouiche-El Kamel S and Hentati Y (2021) Portrait of resilience among Tunisians locked down in times of COVID-19. Traumatology 27(1): 70–77.
12. Dolcos, F., Hohl, K., Hu, Y., & Dolcos, S. (2021). Religiosity and Resilience: Cognitive Reappraisal and Coping Self-Efficacy Mediate the Link between Religious Coping and Well-Being. Journal of religion and health, 60(4), 2892–2905. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-020-01160-y
13. Erdogan, E., Ozdogan, O., & Erdogan, M. (2015). University Students’ Resilience Level: The Effect of Gender and Faculty. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 186, 1262-1267. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.04.047
14. Francis, L. J., Robbins, M., & White, A. (2003). Correlation between religion and happiness: A replication. Psychological Reports, 92(1), 51-52. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.2003.92.1.51
15. Francis, L. J., Tekke, M., & Robbins, M. (2016). The psychometric properties of the Sahin-Francis Scale of Attitude towards Islam revised among Sunni students in Malaysia. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 19(5), 433-439. https://doi.org/10.1080/13674676.2016.1193480
16. French, S., & Joseph, S. (1999). Religiousness and its association with happiness, purpose in life, and self-actualisation. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 2(2), 117-120. https://doi.org/10.1080/13674679908406340
17. Frounfelker, R. L., Tahir, S., Abdirahman, A., & Betancourt, T. S. (2020). Stronger together: Community resilience and Somali Bantu refugees. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 26(1), 22–31. https://doi.org/10.1037/cdp0000286
18. Gan, S. K., Wong, S. W., & Jiao, P. D. (2023). Religiosity, Theism, Perceived Social Support, Resilience, and Well-Being of University Undergraduate Students in Singapore during the COVID-19 Pandemic. International journal of environmental research and public health, 20(4), 3620. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20043620
19. Helmreich, I., Kunzler, A., Chmitorz, A., König, J., Binder, H., Wessa, M., & Lieb, K. (2017). Psychological interventions for resilience enhancement in adults. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2017 (2), 1– 43. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD012527
20. Hill, P. C., Pargament, K. I., Hood, R. W., Jr., McCullough, M. E., Swyers, J. P., Larson, D. B., & Zinnbauer, B. J. (2000). Conceptualizing religion and spirituality: Points of commonality, points of departure. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 30(1), 51–77. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-5914.00119
21. Javanmard, G. H. (2013). Religious beliefs and resilience in academic students. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 84, 744–748. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.06.638
22. Kirkpatrick, L. A., & Hood, R. W. (1990). Intrinsic-extrinsic religious orientation: The boon or bane of contemporary psychology of religion? Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 29(4), 442-462. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1387311
23. Koenig, H. G., McCullough, M., & Larson, D. B. (2001). Handbook of Religion and Health. New York: Oxford University Press.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195118667.001.0001
24. Koenig, H. G. (2007). Religion and remission of depression in medical inpatients with heart failure/pulmonary disease. The Journal of nervous and mental disease, 195(5), 389–395. https://doi.org/10.1097/NMD.0b013e31802f58e3
25. Koenig, H. G. (2009). Research on religion, spirituality, and mental health: a review. Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie, 54(5), 283–291. https://doi.org/10.1177/070674370905400502
26. Lowe, S. R., Hennein, R., Feingold, J. H., Peccoralo, L. A., Ripp, J. A., Mazure, C. M., & Pietrzak, R. H. (2021). Are Women Less Psychologically Resilient Than Men? Background Stressors Underlying Gender Differences in Reports of Stress-Related Psychological Sequelae. The Journal of clinical psychiatry, 83(1), 21br14098. https://doi.org/10.4088/JCP.21br14098
27. Luthar, S. S., Cicchetti, D., & Becker, B. (2000). The construct of resilience: a critical evaluation and guidelines for future work. Child development, 71(3), 543-562. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00164
28. Manciaux, M. (2001). La résilience Un regard qui fait vivre. Études, 395(10), 321-330. https://doi.org/10.3917/etu.954.0321.
29. Manning, L. K., & Miles, A. (2018). Examining the Effects of Religious Attendance on Resilience for Older Adults. Journal of Religion and Health, 57(1), 191-208. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-017-0438-5
30. Masten, A. S. (2001). Ordinary magic. Resilience processes in development. The American psychologist, 56(3), 227–238. https://doi.org/10.1037//0003-066x.56.3.227
31. Masters, K. S., Lensegrav-Benson, T. L., Kircher, J. C., & Hill, R. D. (2005). Effects of Religious Orientation and Gender on Cardiovascular Reactivity Among Older Adults. Research on Aging, 27(2), 221-240. https://doi.org/10.1177/0164027504270678
32. Mosqueiro, B. P., da Rocha, N. S., & Fleck, M. P. (2015). Intrinsic religiosity, resilience, quality of life, and suicide risk in depressed inpatients. Journal of affective disorders, 179, 128–133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2015.03.022
33. Myers, D. G., & Diener, E. (1995). Who is happy? Psychological Science, 6(1), 10-19. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.1995.tb00298.x
34. Peres, J. F., Moreira-Almeida, A., Nasello, A. G., & Koenig, H. G. (2007). Spirituality and resilience in trauma victims. Journal of Religion and Health, 46(3), 343–350. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0101-60832007000700017
35. Puchalski, C., Ferrell, B., Virani, R., Otis-Green, S., Baird, P., Bull, J., Chochinov, H., Handzo, G., Nelson-Becker, H., Prince-Paul, M., Pugliese, K., & Sulmasy, D. (2009). Improving the quality of spiritual care as a dimension of palliative care: the report of the Consensus Conference. Journal of palliative medicine, 12(10), 885–904. https://doi.org/10.1089/jpm.2009.0142
36. Richardson, G. E. (2002). The metatheory of resilience and resiliency. Journal of clinical psychology, 58(3), 307–321. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.10020
37. Rusman, A. A., Zaharim, N. M., & Hashim, I. H. M. (2022). Examining the relationship between religiosity and happiness in Medan, Indonesia: The mediating role of self‐control, self‐regulation, and life satisfaction. Asian Social Work and Policy Review, 17(1), 27–38. https://doi.org/10.1111/aswp.12267
38. Rutten, B.P., Hammels, C., Geschwind, N., Menne-Lothmann, C., Pishva, E., Schruers, K., Van Den Hve, D., Kenis, G., Van Os, J. & Wichers, M. (2013). Resilience in mental health: linking psychological and neurobiological perspectives. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 128(1), 3-20. https://doi.org/10.1111/acps.12095
39. Rutter, M. (2012). Resilience as a Dynamics Concept. Development and Psychopathology, 24(2), 335-344. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0954579412000028
40. Salsman, J. M., & Carlson, C. R. (2005). Religious Orientation, Mature Faith, and Psychological Distress: Elements of Positive and Negative Associations. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 44(2), 201–209. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5906.2005.00276.x
41. Schwalm, F. D., Zandavalli, R. B., de Castro Filho, E. D., & Lucchetti, G. (2022). Is there a relationship between spirituality/religiosity and resilience? A systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies. Journal of health psychology, 27(5), 1218–1232. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359105320984537
42. Sher Ali, M. (Trans.). (2021). The Holy Qur’an. Islam International Publications Limited. Retrieved from https://www.alislam.org/quran/view/?region=E2&CR=&page=675
43. Smith, T. B., McCullough, M. E., & Poll, J. (2003). Religiousness and depression: evidence for a main effect and the moderating influence of stressful life events. Psychological bulletin, 129(4), 614–636. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.129.4.614
44. Smith, M. H., Richards, P. S., & Maglio, C. J. (2004). Examining the Relationship between Religious Orientation and Eating Disturbances. Eating Behaviors, 5(2), 171-180. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1471-0153(03)00064-3
45. Tay, P., & Lim, K. K. (2020). Psychological Resilience as an Emergent Characteristic for Well-Being: A Pragmatic View. Gerontology, 66(5), 476–483. https://doi.org/10.1159/000509210
46. Yalcin-Siedentopf, N., Pichler, T., Welte, A. S., Hoertnagl, C. M., Klasen, C. C., Kemmler, G., Siedentopf, C. M., & Hofer, A. (2021). Sex matters: stress perception and the relevance of resilience and perceived social support in emerging adults. Archives of women's mental health, 24(3), 403–411. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-020-01076-2
Published
2025-01-27
How to Cite
Derouiche-El Kamel, S., & Hentati, Y. (2025). The Relationship Between Intrinsic Religiosity and Resilience Among Tunisian Female University Students. European Scientific Journal, ESJ, 37, 361. Retrieved from https://eujournal.org/index.php/esj/article/view/19031
Section
ESI Preprints
Copyright (c) 2025 Salma Derouiche-El Kamel, Yassamine Hentati
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
