Authors:
Yonathan Aditya
1
;
Riryn Sani
1
;
Ihan Martoyo
2
and
Rudy Pramono
3
Affiliations:
1
Department of Psychology, Universitas Pelita Harapan, Tangerang, Indonesia, Indonesia
;
2
Center for Research and Community Development, Universitas Pelita Harapan, Tangerang, Indonesia, Theological Seminary Indonesia (STTRI), Kemang, Jakarta, Indonesia, Indonesia
;
3
Center for Research and Community Development, Universitas Pelita Harapan, Tangerang, Indonesia, Indonesia
Keyword(s):
Well-being, Religiousness, 4-BDRS, Islam, Christianity.
Abstract:
As a nation based on the belief in one supreme God, Indonesia has depicted indigenous religious phenomena worthy of scientific analysis. Due to the endorsement of religiousness in Indonesia, prior research aimed to find empirical evidence on the effects of religiousness on well-being. However, most of the prior research only focused on one religion, either Islam or Christianity. This paper shows and compares how religiousness in both Islam and Christianity can predict well-being. This study will also show the dynamics of different dimensions of religiousness using the Four Basic Dimensions of Religiousness Scale (4-BDRS), which has been extensively used in the West, in explaining well-being. The empirical evidences were derived from 614 college students from religious-based universities using 4-BDRS and the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS). The result demonstrated that for both Muslims and Christians, total religiousness has a significant positive correlation with well-being (r=.3
4, ρ<.05; r=.39, ρ<.05). However, the results of multiple regression test revealed that for Muslims, only Belonging has a significant effect on well-being (β=.16, ρ<.05) while for Christians only Believing (β=.17, ρ<.05) and Belonging (β=.36, ρ<.05) have a significant effect on well-being. Independent sample t-test indicated that Christian college students show a significantly higher Belonging dimension (M=5.16, SD=1.23, N=275), than Muslim students (M=4.89, SD=1.14, N=339), t (612) = -2.91, p<0.005. On the other hand, Muslim college students (M=6.15, SD=.77, N=339) display a significantly higher Behaving dimension than Christians (M=5.91, SD=.91, N=275), t (535.2) = 3.41, p <.05. These results shed some lights on how Muslims and Christians can be similar and different at the same time, regarding their religiousness and satisfaction with life. Efforts to increase the well-being of religious students might give more attention to the Believing and Belonging dimension of religiousness.
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