Mental health, subjective well-being, and religiosity: Significant associations in Kuwait and USA

Abstract

This paper explores the associations between mental health, subjective wellbeing, and religiosity among Kuwaiti and American college students. Our method involved recruiting two convenience samples of 154 Kuwaiti and 154 American undergraduates (28 men, 125 women in both samples), with a mean age of 20.8 yr. (SD = 2.4), and 21.8 (SD = 5.0), respectively. They completed the Arabic Scale of Mental Health (ASMH), the Rosenberg SelfEsteem Scale, the Arabic Scale of Optimism and Pessimism, the Hopelessness Scale, and selfrating scales assessing physical health, mental health, and religiosity. The scales were administered in Arabic to the Kuwaiti students and in English to the American students. Kuwaiti students obtained a significantly higher mean score on religiosity than did their American counterparts, whereas American students had higher mean scores on the ASMH, and the selfrating scales of both mental health and physical health. Significant correlations were found between the ASMH, selfesteem, optimism and religiosity (positive), whereas the correlations between these scales and pessimism and hopelessness were negative. Two factors were retained in both countries: “Mental health versus hopelessness” and “Selfratings of religiosity and health”. Predictors of ASMH were optimism, selfesteem and the selfrating of mental health in both countries and, in addition, hopelessness (negative) and religiosity in the American sample. 1. Correspondence: Email (david.lester@stockton.edu). 64 Ahmed Abdel-Khalek and David Lester