Religiosity, Theism, Perceived Social Support, Resilience, and Well-Being of University Undergraduate Students in Singapore during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Samuel Ken-En Gan; Sibyl Weang-Yi Wong; Peng-De Jiao

doi:10.3390/ijerph20043620

Religiosity, Theism, Perceived Social Support, Resilience, and Well-Being of University Undergraduate Students in Singapore during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Feb 17;20(4):3620. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20043620.

Authors

Samuel Ken-En Gan^{1

2

3

4}, Sibyl Weang-Yi Wong², Peng-De Jiao^{1

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Wenzhou Municipal Key Lab of Applied Biomedical and Biopharmaceutical Informatics, Wenzhou-Kean University, Wenzhou 325015, China.
² Department of Psychology, James Cook University, Singapore 387380, Singapore.
³ Antibody & Product Development Lab, APD SKEG Pte Ltd., Singapore 439444, Singapore.
⁴ Zhejiang Bioinformatics International Science and Technology Cooperation Center, Wenzhou-Kean University, Wenzhou 325015, China.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic infection control measures severely impacted mental well-being, allowing insight into possible protective parameters. With religion playing a role during challenging times, this study investigated theism and religiosity on the mental well-being of university students during the COVID19 pandemic and how social support and resilience can mediate this effect. One hundred eighty-five university students between 17 and 42 years old responded to online surveys on their theism, religious affiliations, religiosity, well-being, perceived support, and resilience. Pearson's correlations and single and sequential mediation analyses showed that theism did not significantly predict well-being (r = 0.049), but religiosity mediated the relationship (r = 0.432, effect size = 0.187). Sequential mediation analysis showed that resilience did not mediate the relationship between religiosity and well-being, but perceived social support significantly positively mediated religiosity and well-being with an effect size of 0.079. The findings reveal that factors, such as religiosity and social support could thus aid in the mental well-being of future challenging times such as the pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; beliefs; perceived social support; religion; religiosity; resilience; theism; well-being.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Adult
COVID-19*
Humans
Pandemics*
Religion
Singapore
Social Support
Students
Universities
Young Adult

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the James Cook University Singapore, and Wenzhou Science and Technology Bureau, Key Lab Program, Wenzhou Municipal Key Laboratory for Applied Biomedical and Biopharmaceutical Informatics, Wenke Jiji (2021) No. 4, to Wenzhou-Kean University.