The Relationship between Religious Belief and Mental Health: a study on high school students in Dargaz, Iran, 2010-2011

Religious belief is one of the most important factors in people’s life that can affect their mental health. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between religious belief and mental health among high school students in Dargaz city, Khorasan Razavi province, Iran, 2010-2011. This cross-sectional study was performed on 157 high school students selected by using two-stage cluster sampling. Then, all students were asked to complete the Mabad questionnaire (a scale for measurement of obeying religious laws) as well as the 28- item General Health Questionnaire. The results of this study indicated significant relationships between religiousness and qualitative variables of general health, physical symptoms, social functioning and anxiety but there was not any significant relationship between religiousness and depression (P=0.27). Correlation analysis showed a significant correlation between religiousness and general health (r= - 0.175, P=0.03) and physical symptoms (r= - 0.182, P=0.01), but there was no significant correlation between religiousness and other subscales. Our findings showed that religiousness and adherence to religious principles could be one of the factors positively affecting mental and physical health of students.