Abstract
Pakistani Muslim university students (N = 207) displayed Personal Distress, Public Distress, and Personal Defeat Reactions to Terrorism. All three reactions predicted poorer mental health with Personal Defeat being especially disturbed in its adjustment implications. In line with the assumptions of coping theory, scores on the Negative Religious Coping Scale correlated positively with Personal Distress and with Personal Defeat. However, Positive Religious Coping, the spirituality of Muslim Experiential Religiousness, and the Intrinsic and Extrinsic Personal Religious Orientations exhibited positive rather than the expected negative linkages with Personal Distress and Public Distress. Muslim Experiential Religiousness moderated associations of Positive and Negative Religious Coping with Public Distress. When spirituality was high, these relationships were negative. When spirituality was low, they became positive. These data documented the negative impacts that terrorism can have on Pakistanis and suggested that Muslim religious commitments may have an important role to play in resisting those influences.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abu-Raiya, H., & Pargament, K. I. (2015). Religious coping among diverse religions: Commonalities and divergences. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 7(1), 24–33. doi:10.1037/a0037652.
Aiken, L. S., & West, S. G. (1991). Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.
Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social Psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51(6), 1173–1182. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.51.6.1173.
Beck, A. T., Weissman, A., Lester, D., & Trexler, L. (1974). The measurement of pessimism: The Hopelessness Scale. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 42, 861–865. doi:10.1037/h0037562.
Costello, C. G., & Comrey, A. L. (1967). Scales for measuring depression and anxiety. Journal of Psychology, 66(2), 303–313. doi:10.1080/00223980.1967.10544910.
Fair, C. C., Malhotra, N., & Shapiro, J. N. (2012). Faith or doctrine? Religion and support for political violence in Pakistan. Public Opinion Quarterly, 76(4), 688–720. doi:10.1093/poq/nfs053.
Ghorbani, N., Watson, P. J., Geranmayepour, S., & Chen, Z. (2013). Analyzing the spirituality of Muslim experiential religiousness: Relationships with psychological measures of Islamic religiousness in Iran. Archive for the Psychology of Religion, 35(2), 233–258. doi:10.1163/15736121-12341264.
Ghorbani, N., Watson, P. J., Geranmayepour, S., & Chen, Z. (2014a). Measuring Muslim spirituality: Relationships of Muslim experiential religiousness with religious and psychological adjustment in Iran. Journal of Muslim Mental Health, 8(1), 77–94. doi:10.3998/jmmh.10381607.0008.105.
Ghorbani, N., Watson, P. J., Geranmayepour, S., & Chen, Z. (2014b). Muslim experiential religiousness: Relationships with attitude toward Islam, religious reflection, and basic needs satisfaction in Iranians. Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion, 25, 53–72.
Gorsuch, R. L., & McPherson, S. E. (1989). Intrinsic/extrinsic measurement: I/E revised and single-item scales. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 28(3), 348–354. doi:10.2307/1386745.
Khan, Z. H., & Watson, P. J. (2004). Religious orientation and the experience of Eid-ul-Azha among Pakistani Muslims. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 43(4), 537–545. doi:10.1111/j.1468-5906.2004.00254.x.
Khan, Z. H., Watson, P. J., & Chen, Z. (2011). Differentiating religious coping from Islamic identification in patient and non-patient Pakistani Muslims. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 14, 1049–1062. doi:10.1080/13674676.2010.550040.
Khan, Z., Zia, A., Watson, P. J., Nielsen, M., Johnson, K., & Chen, Z. (2015). Stress and psychological and social resources for coping in informal family caregivers of cancer patients in Pakistan. Indian Journal of Health and Wellbeing, 16, 1070–1075.
Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping. New York, NY: Springer Press.
Miner, M., Ghobary, B., Dowson, M., & Proctor, M. (2014). Spiritual attachment in Islam and Christianity: Similarities and differences. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 17, 79–93. doi:10.1080/13674676.2012.749452.
Pargament, K. I. (1997). The psychology of religion and coping: Theory, research, practice. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Pargament, K. I., Feuille, M., & Burdzy, D. (2011). The Brief RCOPE: Current psychometric status of a short measure of religious coping. Religions, 2, 51–76. doi:10.3390/rel2010051.
Venkatraman, A. (2007). Religious basis for Islamic terrorism: The Quran and its interpretations. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 30(3), 229–248. doi:10.1080/10576100600781612.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Khan, Z.H., Watson, P.J. & Chen, Z. Muslim Spirituality, Religious Coping, and Reactions to Terrorism Among Pakistani University Students. J Relig Health 55, 2086–2098 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-016-0263-2
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-016-0263-2