Contentment (Qana’ah) and Mental Health on Fishermen in Pena’ah

Village, Indonesia

Yang Dini Azkarisa and Juliarni Siregar

Faculty Of Psychology,University Of Islamic Riau, Kaharuddin Nasution No.113 Marpoyan, Pekanbaru, Indonesia

Keywords: Mental health, qana’ah, fishermen

Abstract: The majority of fishermen in Pena'ah experienced a decline in income which caused them to be burdened

economically. This has an impact on increasing mental health problems, while mental health services are

not available in Pena'ah village. People who have contentment (qana'ah) characteristics feel enough with the

least sustenance they have and do not demand more than what they have. This is one of the characteristics

of a person who is likely to prevent the emergence of mental health problems. Therefore, the purpose of this

study was to determine whether there was a relationship between qana'ah and the mental health of

fishermen in Pena'ah village. The subjects of this study were 112 fishermen in Pena'ah village aged 17-50

years. The sampling technique used is cluster random sampling. The instrument used is the Mental Health

Inventory (MHI-38) which has been adapted in Indonesian and the Qana'ah questionnaire developed by

researchers based on Rusdy's (2016) and Hamka (2017) theory. Based on the results of statistical analysis

using Pearson product moment correlation, it is known that there is a significant positive relationship

between qana'ah and mental health, with a value of r = 0.196 and sig = 0.034 (sig <0.05). It can be

concluded that increasing qana'ah in a person will be followed by an increase in mental health. Qana'ah is

one of the positive qualities in humans that can prevent the emergence of mental health problems.

1 INTRODUCTION

The mental health of people in the world today is

quite apprehensive where it is seen from many cases

involving mental health disorders that cause death.

Based on data released by the World Health

Organization (WHO) in 2012, the global suicide

ratio is 11.4 people per 100,000 populations

annually, and in Southeast Asia, the suicide rate

ratio is 17.7 people per 100,000 populations. One of

the causes of suicide is caused by mental disorders

where the most common mental disorders that lead

tosuicidal behaviour are depression and alcohol

abuse.

Based on statistical data regarding suicide, it was

found that 80% of suicides occur in countries with

low to moderate income, where mental disorders are

the main cause of suicide (WHO, 2013). This is

reinforced by several research results which prove

that poverty is one of the factors that cause the

emergence of mental disorders. The results of

research by Kuruvilla and Jacob (2007), McPherson

(2014), Liputo (2014) showed that poor people are at

higher risk of experiencing mental disorders, and

poverty has a negative impact on mental health.

From the above statement, it can be concluded that

poverty is one of the main factors of mental health

problems.

Indonesia is one of the countries with middle or

medium income where the average per capita

income is US $ 13.12 with an estimated monthly

income of 4 million rupiah, however, many

Indonesians still earn below that average.

According to Central Bureau of Statistics data in

2017, Lingga Regency is the poorest district in Riau

Islands Province with a total income of 387,244.00

rupiah. The poverty rate in Lingga Regency

continues to increase. In 2012 the number of poor

people in Lingga Regency was 12,393 and in 2016

increased to 12,760 people. This is due to the low

budget given by the Indonesian government for the

development of Lingga Regency. In addition, it is

also due to the difficulty of access to reach all

regions in Lingga Regency (Maris, 2018).

Lingga Regency has many remote areas that are

difficult to manage and experience poverty

problems, where one of them is the village of

Pena'ah. The income of the people in Pena'ah village

ranges from 500,000 - 1,000,000 rupiah per month

564

Azkarisa, Y. and Siregar, J.

Contentment (Qana’ah) and Mental Health on Fishermen in Pena’ah Village, Indonesia.

DOI: 10.5220/0008592105640573

In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Psychology in Health, Educational, Social, and Organizational Settings (ICP-HESOS 2018) - Improving Mental Health and Harmony in

Global Community, pages 564-573

ISBN: 978-989-758-435-0

which according to the Regional Financial

Management Officer, if the income earned is less

than 2,600,000 rupiah per month, this is categorized

as middle to lower class. Low income for fishermen

in Pena'ah village is expected to trigger mental

health problems.

Besides the problem of poverty, this is

exacerbated by the difficulty of accessing the

Pena'ah community to the surrounding area. To

reach the nearest village that has Primary Health

Care, the Pena'ah people have to go through sea

transportation for 2 hours, and to reach the capital of

the Riau Islands, the Pena'ah people have to take a 6-

hour sea trip. The problem of poverty and the

difficulty of access to the surrounding area are

thought to cause mental health problems in the

Pena'ah community, which has found some people

who have or show symptoms of psychological

disorders. Nevertheless, there is no definite data

regarding the number of people with mental

disorders in Pena'ah village, but based on

observations by researchers, there are a number of

problems that lead to mental disorders such as

withdrawal behaviour from the social environment,

and other symptoms that lead to depression.

The mental health problems that occurred in

Pena'ah were not followed by the availability of

mental health facilities, where Pena'ah village had

only one health service facility which was a sub-

section of Primary Mental Health Care in the capital

city of Lingga Regency with only one paramedic ie

nurses. Therefore, people are more likely to choose

alternative medicine such as going to a witch doctor

(dukun) to ask for water that was given a mantra.

Research from Suharmiati (2012) stated that most

people prefer to seek treatment with a witch doctor

because of cultural factors and the cost of treatment

to a witchdoctor is cheaper than seeking treatment

from health workers such as nurses and midwives.

This is also exacerbated by the lack of public

knowledge of mental health problems.

The unavailability of mental health facilities

makes religion a way to deal with mental health

problems. Ardani (2012) states that someone who

surrenders himself or surrenders completely to his

religion can bring positive feelings to the person,

where the role of religion is to be able to reassure the

heart, as a helper in achieving happiness in life, and

can be used as mental therapy and mental

improvement. According to Dradjat (2001) one of

the internal factors that affect human mental health

is religion, if someone who has been taught good

religious values from a young age, it will be a good

person.

Other research shows that someone who has

strong faith in religion is predicted to have a higher

life satisfaction and higher personal happiness. In

addition, religiosity or religion can improve mental

health, especially psychological well-being, and

reduce anxiety and depression (Amawidayanti &

Utami, 2006; Archentari, 2011; Marchia, 2007;

Affandi, 2007).

The statements and research above have shown

how religiosity affects mental health, but the concept

of religiosity above is considered still very common,

where the concept of religiosity in Islam does not

only consist of aspects of belief and worship, but

one's faith can also influence the establishment of

morality (noble qualities) such as patient, surrender

to god (tawakkal), gratitude, contentment (qana'ah)

and others.

In this study, one of the characters studied was

contentment (qana'ah). This is because research on

qana'ah has not been done much. Research on

qana'ah has only begun since 2016 by researcher Ani

entitled "Understanding qonaah values and

increasing self-esteem through group discussion

(study of orphanage in Nurul Haq Yogyakarta

orphanage)". There have been no studies of qana'ah

which show how the relationship between qana'ah

and mental health directly.

Research on morals other than qana'ah in the

context of Islamic psychology has been widely

practiced. As with the research conducted by

Dipoalam (2014), it showed that patience is

negatively correlated with anxiety, meaning that

high levels of patience are followed by low anxiety

in a person. Husnair, Saniah, and Nashori (2017)

also found that surrender to God (tawakkal) can

reduce academic stress levels in students. Besides

that, the nature of gratitude was also found to be

positively correlated with psychological well-being,

meaning that the welfare of psychological well-

being of a person depends on the nature of gratitude

that is owned. This means that the nature of

gratitude can increase the psychological well-being

of someone.

There has been much research on the nature of

patience, surrender to God (tawakkal), gratitude and

its influence on mental health. However, there is no

research that shows how the relationship between

contentment (qana'ah) and mental health.

Qana'ah is one of the noble traits that are

characterized by a feeling of satisfaction, sufficient,

and fulfilled all their needs, so that people who are

qana'ah are always grateful for the blessings that

have been given and when given disaster by God,

they will always be patient. People who have

Contentment (Qana’ah) and Mental Health on Fishermen in Pena’ah Village, Indonesia

565

qana'ah always believe in power that exceeds human

power and that power determines the destiny of

every human being. People who are qana'ah, their

lives are always simple and not excessive so that in

living their lives, they do not make themselves

difficult (Al-Faruq, 2012; Ali, 2014; Rusdi, 2016;

Hamka, 2017).

People who have the nature of qana'ah are

people who have gained satisfaction in their lives

because they feel that everything they need has been

fulfilled. The characteristic of qana'ah has a

connection with one of the meanings of a mentally

healthy person that is a mentally healthy person who

has successfully fulfilled the needs of his life. If

someone feels the needs in his life have not been

fulfilled, then he will feel anxious and will be

disturbed by emotional stability (Burhanuddin,

1999).

Another characteristic of qana'ah is always

grateful for the blessings given by God (gratitude).

People who have a high level of gratitude will also

have a high level of happiness because they tend to

be more satisfied and optimistic when compared to

individuals who are not thankful (Sativa&Helmi,

2014). This is related to one aspect of mental health

that is feeling happiness in his life (Semiun, 2006).

The next characteristic of qana'ah which is

related to mental health is acceptance of all things

that have been destined or given by God, where

according to Semiun (2006), to achieve mental

health, people must accept their condition as they

are, with all the strengths and weaknesses.

Someone who is qana'ah, their life is always

simple, not excessive and their life orientation is not

materialistic so they do not make themselves

difficult by pursuing material possesion. Therefore,

people who possess the qana'ah nature more easily

achieve life satisfaction.

The above statements have been proven by

research conducted by Noorhayati (2016) which

states that in the absence of qana'ah, it can affect

mental conditions, where a person becomes easily

agitated and uncertain. If someone has the nature of

qana'ah, they will always be kind (husnuzhan) to

God even though their destiny is not in accordance

with what they want, it is not easy to blame others

and always introspective that what happened is

really as a result of what he did, his soul will always

be calm, because he will face all the events with the

conviction and sincerity that everything that happens

to him is God's decision that must occur.

The statement and research above shows how

qana'ah can affect a person's mental health, so

researchers are interested in conducting research to

find out how the relationship between qana'ah and

mental health. In addition, as far as what is known

by researchers, no research has been found on how

the nature of qana'ah affects a person's mental health

condition.

2 METHOD

The method used in this research is quantitative

research method where the dependent variable is

mental health and the independent variable is

contentment (qana'ah). The criteria of the subjects in

this study were the Pena'ah people aged 17-50 years

who were fishermen. The number of fishermen

population in Pena'ah village was 193, the

researchers determined the number of samples based

on the Slovin formula where the researcher used an

error rate of 5%. The results of calculations with the

Slovin formula obtained 130 samples. The sampling

technique used was cluster random sampling where

the researcher randomized each RT to obtain 26

samples for each RT. However, during the data

collection process there were 18 samples whose data

were incomplete so that the subjects used in this

study were only 112 samples.

2.1 Research Procedures

The procedure in this study is divided into 3 stages:

research preparation, research instrument

development, and research implementation.

2.1.1 Research Preparation

At the preparation stage of the research, researchers

prepared the facilities and infrastructure needed in

the study,the research was approved by the Dean of

the Psychology Faculty of the Islamic University of

Riau under 530 / E-UIR / 27-F.Psi / 2018. The

permit was given to each chairperson of the

Neighborhood Association to obtain approval from

each Neighborhood Association to conduct research

on residents who live in the Neighborhood

Association. After obtaining the approval of each

Neighborhood Association, the researchers asked for

informed consent from each prospective sample in

this study.

2.1.2 Development of Research Instruments

The instrument used in this study is the Qana'ah

scale and Mental Health Inventory-38 (MHI-38).

The qana'ah scale is prepared by the researcher

ICP-HESOS 2018 - International Conference on Psychology in Health, Educational, Social, and Organizational Settings

566

based on the characteristics of qana'ah people stated

by Rusdi (2017) and Hamka (2016). The MHI-38

used in this study was taken from Veit and Ware

(1983) which was adapted into Indonesian by Faizha

and Amna (2017).

Qana’ah Scale

The qana'ah scale is compiled based on the theory of

Hamka (2017) and Rusdi's theory (2016). Hamka

(2017) states that the nature of qana'ah consists of:

1) accepting willingly something that exists; 2)

asking God for an additional sustenance that is

appropriate and always trying to get what is desired;

3) accepting patiently for God's provisions; 4)

surrendering to God and 5) not being interested in

materialistic things. Researchers also use Rusdi's

(2016) theory which says that the nature of qana'ah

is characterized by 1) accepting with little

sustenance and 2) not demanding more.

The characteristics expressed by Hamka and

Rusdi were used as a basis for making 80 items

consisting of favorable and unfvorable items. The

items that have been compiled are validated by

asking for judgment from one Islamic psychology

expert to assess the accuracy of item content or item

relevance to the qana'ah characteristics mentioned.

Of the 80 items, 11 items were declared invalid, so

the item was not used in qana'ah instruments. Of the

80 items, only 69 items were declared valid

consisting of 38 favorable items and 31 unfavorable

items.

After going through the content validation

process, researchers conducted a try-out process on

qana'ah instruments using 60 try out subjects who

were fishermen in Pena'ah village. From the results

of the trial, there are 25 items that have item-total

correlation values ≤ 0.25 and are declared invalid. A

item that is considered valid for 44 items. The

researcher then tested the reliability of the 44 items

and obtained the Alpha Cronbach value of 0.921 and

the item-total correlation value moved from 0.285 to

0.627. The qana'ah scale is declared valid and

reliable to be used as a data collection instrument in

this study.

Mental Health Inventory

To measure the mental health of the sample in this

study, researchers used the Mental Health Inventory-

38 compiled by Veit and Ware (1983) and adapted

into Indonesian by Faizah and Amna (2017). The

MHI-38 scale has been tested by researchers in a

sample of 60 fishermen samples in Pena'ah village

and obtained alpha cronbach (α) value of 0.882. This

shows that the Indonesian version of the MHI-38

scale is suitable for use in research data collection.

2.1.3 Research Implementation

The study was conducted on May 17 - May 30 2018

with a total sample of 112 fishermen. The study was

conducted in the morning when fishermen had not

gone to sea. Prior to the distribution of research

instruments, the subjects had expressed their

willingness to follow research without coercion by

signing informed consent. Then, the researcher

distributed questionnaires to 112 fishermen who had

been given briefing in advance regarding the

procedures for filling the scale. Each subject

received a questionnaire booklet containing two

scales, namely qana'ah scale and MHI-38.

3 RESULTS

The results of this study are described in 4 parts,

namely 1) description of demographic data, 2)

description of contentment and mental health score

categories, 3) results of prerequisite analysis tests, 4)

results of hypothesis testing.

3.1. Decsription of Demograhic Data

This study was conducted on 112 fishermen in

Pena'ah village aged 17-50 years. The demographic

table of the research sample can be seen in table 1.

Based on table 1, it is known that the most number

of samples in this study were fishermen aged 41-50

years (53.57%), graduated from elementary school

(58.03%), married (91.07), have 0-3 children

(83.93), monthly income of 250,000-1,000,000

rupiahs (41.96%), and has been a fisherman for 11-

20 years (34.82%).

Table 1: Demographic data.

Details of demographic data

Age

17- 21years old

1,78

22 – 40years

old

44,64

41 – 50 years

old

53,57

Education

Not completed

in Elementary

School

8,03

Graduate

58,03

Contentment (Qana’ah) and Mental Health on Fishermen in Pena’ah Village, Indonesia

567

Elementary

School

Graduate Junior

High School

13,39

Graduate

Senior High

School

20,53

Graduate

Diploma

0,89

Graduate

Bachelor

Degree

1,78

Marital

status

Single

8,93

Married

102

91,07

Number of

children

0-3

83,93

4-6

19,07

Monthly

income

250.000-

1.000.000

41,96

1.500.000-

2.000.000

40,18

2.500.000-

4.000.000

12,5

5.000.000-

6.000.000

5,36

33,03

How long

became a

fisherman

0-10 years

34,82

11-20 years

21-30 years

4,46

3.2 Description of Contentment and

Mental Health Score Categories

Researchers categorized contentment and mental

health scale scores into 5 categories determined

based on empirical mean scores and standard

deviations of each scale. The mean score of the

contentment scale was 185.34 and the standard

deviation was 8.843, while the mean score of mental

health was 162.42 and the standard deviation was

20.354. Score categorization was divided into five

categories: very high, high, medium, low, and very

low. Contentment and mental health score category

can be seen in table 2 and table 3.

Table 2: Contentment score categories

Categories

Score

Very High

>192,95

8,035

High

Medium

172,60 -192,95

152,243-172,6

19,64

42,85

Low

131,89-152,24

24,107

Very Low

<131,89

5,357

Count

112

100

Based on table 3, it can be concluded that most

of the subjects in this study had a level of mental

health in the medium category with a percentage of

42.85%.

3.3 The Results of Prerequisite

Analysis Tests

Before testing the hypothesis, the researcher

conducted a prerequisite analysis test using the data

distribution normality test and linearity test.

Normality test is a test conducted to determine

whether the distribution of data is normal or not

where this is determined by using a significance

value of p>0.05 to indicate the data is normally

distributed. Researchers used the One Sample

Kolmogorov Smirnov statistical analysis to show the

normality of data distribution. The results of the

normality test on data contentment obtained a p-

value of 0.200 (p> 0.05) and in mental health data

obtained a p-value of 0.075 (p> 0.05), it means that

both data are normally distributed. Furthermore, the

linearity test, the data is linear if the value of F

(Linearity)>0.05. Linearity test results show that F

(Linearity) is 4.068 with a p-value of 0.047

(p<0.05), it means that the two variables are

declared linear.

3.4 Hypothesis Test Results

Statistical analysis to test the hypothesis in this study

is the analysis of Pearson Product Moment

Correlation, which obtained the correlation

coefficient (r) of 0.196 (*) with a value of p=0.034

(p<0.05). It can be concluded that there is a

significant positive correlation between contentment

and mental health in fishermen in Pena'ah village.

The higher contentment score is followed by the

higher mental health score. Conversely, the lower

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568

contentment score is followed by the lower mental

health score.

Researchers also tested the correlation between

contentment and psychological distress and

psychological well-being which are also parameters

of a person's mental health. The results of the

Pearson Product Moment Correlation test found that

there was a significant relationship between

contentment and psychological distress with a

correlation coefficient of -0.194 with p=0.041 (p

<0.05). This showed that there is a negative

relationship between contentment and psychological

distress which means higher contentment followed

by lower psychological distress.

The results of testing the correlation between

contentment and psychological well-being found

that contentment also has a significant relationship

with psychological well-being which obtained a

correlation coefficient of 0.199 with a value of

p=0.036 (p<0.05). This shows that there is a positive

relationship between contentment and psychological

well-being, which means that the higher contentment

score is followed by a higher psychological well-

being.

4 DISCUSSION

Mental health consists of 2 major components,

namely psychological distress, and psychological

well-being. People who are mentally healthy are

people who do not have psychological distress but

have psychological well-being. Psychological

distress can be triggered by a stressor. In this study,

the stressors that may be experienced are economic

problems, namely poverty. Poverty is predicted as

one of the causes of mental disorders, in which

several studies have shown that poor people have a

higher risk of experiencing mental disorders

(Kuruvilla & Jacob, 2007; McPerson 2014).

Lingga Regency is the district with the highest

level of poverty in the Riau Islands province. One of

the villages that experienced the worst poverty

problem in Lingga district was Pena'ah village. The

majority of the population in Pena'ah are fishermen,

where the average monthly income is Rp.

500,000.00 - Rp. 1,000,000.00. The level of income

is far from enough to meet their living needs for a

month. The low income of fishermen in Pena'ah

village is expected to trigger mental health

problems.

Besides the problem of poverty, this condition is

exacerbated by the difficulty of access to the

surrounding area. To reach the nearest village that

has Primary Health Care, the people of Pena'ah have

to go by sea transportation for 2 hours. These factors

are thought to also trigger the emergence of mental

health problems in the village of Pena'ah.

In a study conducted by Patel and Kleinman

(2003), it showed that people who experience

poverty tend to feel insecure, which creates fear and

anxiety. Besides creating insecurity, poverty also

creates feelings of despair and meaninglessness.

These feelings cause stress which then leads to

common mental disorder.

Not everyone who experiences poverty has the

same risk of experiencing mental health problems.

Based on the theory of diathesis-stress, it showed

that human characteristics can increase or decrease

the risk of mental disorders. This theory explains

how a person's personality characteristics can be a

barrier to the development of psychopathology

(Islam & Choudhry, 2017).

In this study, the characteristics that have been

investigated by researchers are contentment.

Researchers found that there was a significant

relationship between contentment and mental health.

A correlation coefficient of 0.196 was obtained with

p = 0.034 (p<0.05). This shows that contentment is a

positive trait that can prevent the emergence of

mental health problems in the poor people in the

village of Pena'ah.

Furthermore, the researcher also found that

contentment had a significant negative relationship

with psychological distress, which obtained a

correlation coefficient of -0.194 with p = 0.041 (p

<0.05). This shows that contentment is also one of

the positive traits that can prevent the emergence of

psychological distress in poor communities in

Pena'ah Village.

Why is contentment able to prevent the

emergence of mental health problems? Researchers

used the theoretical foundation of Islamic

psychology in compiling the contentment constructs

under study. In Islamic psychology, contentment is

referred to as qana'ah which is one of the best traits

of the human personality taught to Muslims. In the

perspective of Islam, qana'ah is a trait characterized

by always being satisfied with something they have,

always feeling that their needs have been fulfilled

properly, good acceptance of what God has given

(not complaining if what is received is not in line

with expectations), a simple lifestyle, not

exaggerating and accepting life as it is. In addition,

people who are qana'ah believe that there is a power

that exceeds our power, are always patient when

they get calamity and are always grateful when

given a pleasure (Al-Faruq, 2012; Ali, 2014; Rusdi,

2016; Hamka, 2017).

Contentment (Qana’ah) and Mental Health on Fishermen in Pena’ah Village, Indonesia

569

The characteristics of qana'ah are similar to the

characteristics of hardy personality, type B

personality and people who have a sense of personal

control that is believed to be a human characteristic

that is immune to stress (Sarafino & Smith, 2011).

Hardy personality has 3 characteristics, namely

control, commitment, and challenge. Those who

have hardy personality believe that they can

influence events in their lives (control), feel it is

important to involve themselves in efforts to achieve

goals (commitment) and tend to assume a difficulty

as an opportunity to grow or give positive meaning

to each event (challenge) (Kobasa, Maddi, & Khan,

1982). One characteristic of qana'ah is to stay patient

when given calamity and accept it as a destiny given

by God. It has similarities with hardy personality,

namely the aspects of control, commitment and

challenge where they are able to control unpleasant

events and give positive meaning to the event. So, it

is increasingly clear that qana’ah is a positive trait

that can prevent the emergence of mental health

problems such as psychological distress.

Qana'ah also has similarities to type B

personality where people who have a type B

personality are described as always showing a more

relaxed and calm, able to accept the situation rather

than fight it by competing. People like this stay calm

even though there is a time pressure. This causes

them to be less likely to experience stress (Maulana,

2014). While the characteristics of people who are

qana'ah are not making the world as the purpose of

life, always accept whatever God gives them, and

feel calm because they feel that all their needs have

been fulfilled.It also makes it clear that qanaah is a

trait similar to type B personality so it can be said

that qona'ah can prevent the emergence of mental

health problems as well as type B personality.

The last part is the sense of personal control

where people with this trait tend to see that they

have influence over their lives and do not see

themselves as people who are powerless when they

have problems. People who have these

characteristics assume that their qualities influence

the achievement that will be obtained in the future

(Ross & Sastry, 1999). This assumption is similar to

the characteristics of qana'ah where people like this

believe in a power that will determine their future

destiny, where if they try and God bless their efforts,

then they are sure they will get it. So, qana'ah is also

a trait characterized by the ability to control their

self, but their self-control is dependent on God's

destiny.

From the above explanation, it is concluded that

the traits that prevent people from the stress are

already present in the characteristics of qana'ah.

Although the above characteristics have similarities

with qana'ah, there is a difference between qana'ah

and the characteristics described earlier. One of the

differences is that qana'ah is characterized by a sense

of trust in a greater power that affects human

destiny, namely God. This was explained in the

anchor theory by Riyono (2012) which states that

humans must have something that can be relied upon

in the face of an uncertain future so that they can

avoid risk and give people hope, this is called an

anchor. This anchor can be categorized as material,

self, others and believe in virtue. For those who

believe in God, virtue itself is anchored to God so

God is the highest anchor. However, this view only

applies to people who believe in God. God is the

perfect anchor that humans can rely on upon without

hesitation. Relying on God's ability can make a

person's psychological state feel peaceful and

provide the power of motivation without knowing

fear.

Riyono (2012) explained that it was also in line

with the humanistic-existential theory put forward

by Rollo May who said that psychologically healthy

people were able to assume freedom while facing

their destiny, where individuals would feel free if

they understood their destiny (Feist & Feist, 2008).

So, people who are qana'ah are people who feel that

they are free because they understand their destiny.

They also only depend on God so God becomes the

strongest anchor in their lives. Their trust in God

causes qana'ah people just surrender themselves to

God, willing to give whatever God gives and are

satisfied with their sustenance even a little. This is

what causes people of Qana'ah to be resistant to the

stresses of life that they experience like stress due to

poverty.

Besides not having psychological distress,

mentally healthy people are also described as people

who have psychological well-being. In this study, it

was found that there was a significant positive

relationship between qana'ah and psychological

well-being with a correlation coefficient of 0.199

with p = 0.036 (p<0.05). This shows that qana'ah can

encourage people to achieve well-being.

The characteristics of people who have

psychological well-being are always having positive

feelings in everyday life, having a feeling of being

loved and having life satisfaction. People who have

qana'ah have achieved satisfaction in their lives,

where they always feel satisfied with what God has

given. This has been investigated previously by

Saputro (2017), the results show that there is a

significant positive relationship between qana'ah and

ICP-HESOS 2018 - International Conference on Psychology in Health, Educational, Social, and Organizational Settings

570

life satisfaction with a significance value of 0.006

(p<0.05) with an effective contribution of 7.1%.

This means that the nature of qana'ah was predicted

to cause life satisfaction.

People who have achieved satisfaction in life

will always feel happy. Happy is one of the positive

feelings a person has. Seligman (2005) stated that

one element of happiness is life satisfaction that can

be achieved if expectations and needs have been

met. People who are qana'ah always feel the needs in

their lives have been fulfilled so they become happy

people. On the other hand, Seligman (2005) said that

people who are happy lost their fear and worry about

something that is not desirable, they are also able to

evaluate the experience. Because people who are

qana'ah are happy people, so, people who have

qana'ah trait will never think about how the results

will be obtained in the future, they always surrender

to God's provisions but still try according to their

abilities.

Besides being able to feel happiness, people who

are qana'ah also have high self-esteem. This can be

explained based on research conducted by Ani

(2016) which shows that increasing understanding of

qana'ah values through group discussion has a

significant effect on increasing self-esteem in foster

children in NurulHaq orphanage. These results

indicate that qana'ah can improve one's self-esteem.

Therefore, even though poverty can naturally cause

self-esteem to be low, however, in people who are

poor, poverty is not expected to cause low self-

esteem. This is one reason why fishermen in Pena'ah

village who live in poverty remain mentally healthy.

Other properties of qana'ah are not making

themselves in a difficult condition, they are trying to

achieve goals according to their current abilities or

circumstances. In Rogers's theory of personality, it is

said that people who have a real self that is in line

with the ideal self (what they want to achieve and

see) are people who have a healthy personality. The

greater distance between the real self and ideal self

will cause one's woes to grow bigger (Fesit& Feist,

2008).

Grateful is also one of the characteristics of

qana'ah, where, in one of the studies conducted by

Wicaksono and Susilawati (2016) showed there was

a significant positive relationship between gratitude

and psychological well-being with a significance

value of 0,000 (p<0.05). This means that the more

often someone is grateful, the higher psychological

well-being of a person, which is one aspect of

mental health. The coefficient of determination

obtained is equal to 0.513 which shows 51.3%

psychological well-being can be explained by the

presence of gratitude.

From the explanation above, it can be seen that

the qana'ah is a noble characteristic that can suppress

the appearance of psychological distress and can

accelerate the growth of psychological well-being in

a person.

5 CONCLUSSION

Based on the results of the analysis and discussion

that have been described previously it can be

concluded that there is a significant positive

relationship between qana'ah and mental health in

fishermen in Pena'ah village with (r) of 0.196 and p-

value = 0.034 (p<0.05). Furthermore, there is a

significant negative relationship between qana'ah

and psychological distress on fishermen in Pena'ah

village with (r) of -0.194 with p = 0.041 (p <0.05).

Qana'ah also has a significant positive relationship

with psychological well-being with a value (r) of

0.199 and p-value = 0.036 (p <0.05). This means

that qana'ah can suppress the appearance of

psychological distress in a person and can accelerate

the growth of psychological well-being in a person.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Research publication not has been possible without

the financial support of the Universitas Islam Riau,

Pekanbaru. I am especially grateful to the Head of

University, theDean of the Faculty of

Psychology,and the supervisor of my research.I am

also thankful to Faizah and Amna who gave me

permission to use MHI-38 that has been adapted in

Bahasa and head of Pena’ah village who has given

permission to conduct research in Pena’ah village.

DECLARATION OF INTEREST

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this

work.

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