Abstract
Religiosity is widespread in Africa and permeates the life of the continent’s young adults in ways yet to be fully understood. It is unclear what meanings young Africans perceive with their religiosity or the pathways to experiencing meaning. Therefore, we investigated the role of religious commitment in the search for and experience of meaning among young people in Ghana. In a cross-sectional design study, 342 Ghanaian students (female = 67%; mean age = 21 years, SD = 3.25) completed the Religious Commitment Inventory and the Meaning in Life Questionnaire. Structural equation modelling (SEM) in Mplus was used to test direct and interaction effects to demonstrate the dynamic relationships among religious commitment, and the search for and the presence of meaning. While results indicated a positive association between religious commitment and presence of meaning, the search for meaning was unrelated to religious commitment or presence of meaning. The interaction between search for meaning and religious commitment did not result in a significant effect on presence of meaning. These findings suggest that in this Ghanaian sample, religious commitment played a role in determining meaningful life experience, but the search for meaning did not play a role in the experience of meaning.
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The research project “Measuring and exploring the contextual manifestation of well-being among students: An African multi-country study” (Khumalo) was funded by the South African National Research Foundation (NRF, SA) (112092).
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The funded project was conceptualized by and conducted under the leadership of the corresponding author. All authors contributed equally to the manuscript.
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The research project was approved by The Research Ethics Committee of the North-West University, South Africa (Protocol # NWU-HS-2015–0126), and the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) of the College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana (Protocol # NMIMR-IRB CPN 093/16–17). The study was conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the two institutions, as well as the South African Department of Health (2015) and the Declaration of Helsinki (World Health Organisation, 2001).
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Wilson, A., Khumalo, I.P. & Mpofu, E. Meaning in Life Among Ghanaian University Students: Does Religious Commitment Matter?. J Relig Health 61, 2482–2499 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-021-01405-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-021-01405-4