"Religious Coping Fosters Mental Health": Does Psychological Capital Enable Pakistani Engineers to Translate Religious Coping into Mental Wellbeing?

Abstract

Turning toward religion to make sense of and cope with challenging circumstances is an area of interest for many recent researchers working on wellbeing and mental health. The present study extends this interest by assessing whether psychological capital explains the association between religious coping and mental wellbeing in Pakistani engineers. Psychological capital was assessed from four factors, namely optimism, resilience, hope, and self-efficacy. A sample of 501 Muslim engineers from Pakistan (M age = 33.41, SD = 6.37years) was assessed on measures of religious coping, psychological capital, and mental wellbeing. Results from correlation and a multimediation model showed that positive religious coping was positively predictive of mental wellbeing and psychological capital; however, negative religious coping remained insignificant for mental wellbeing. Further analysis showed that of four psychological capital factors, only self-efficacy explained the positive association between positive religious coping and mental wellbeing. Implications of the findings along with future directions have been discussed.