Islamic religiosity and subjective well-being in the west: meta-analytic evidence of protections across diverse Muslim diasporas

ABSTRACT

Contemporary diasporas have brought many Muslims to the predominantly Judeo-Christian West. These have been attended by prevalent mistrust, stigmatization and, discrimination, especially against Muslim women, many of whom are visibly identifiable by their hijabs. Such factors pose clear risks to their mental health and well-being. Protective religiosity-subjective well-being associations are well known among Christians and Jews, but not among Muslims in the West. This meta-analytic review of 21 surveys found a significant association between religiosity and well-being among an aggregate sample of 7,145 Muslims; r = 0.20, p < .05. Two-thirds of religious Muslims scored higher on measures of well-being than nonreligious Muslims, and such protections were greater among Muslim women than men; χ² (1) = 4.37, p < .05. Islamic religiosity seems to bolster subjective well-being among Muslims in the West. Social workers and allied practitioners ought to incorporate religious beliefs and practices as life space resources in working with Muslims as we work to eradicate Islamic discrimination from Western social structures.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender
• Islam
• mental health
• Muslim
• meta-analysis
• religiosity
• well-being

Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the library scientific support of Sharon Munro, Leddy Library, University of Windsor.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).