An Investigation into the Mediating Role of Religiously in Analysis of the Factors Influencing Social Responsibility of Student

One of the most important issues in educational psychology is considering the responsibility principle for growth and evolution in humans. Social responsibility is defined as a pattern of behavior, motivated by personal and social values that demonstrate an attitude of concern for the welfare of others in all levels of society where no previous personal relationship exists. The reason that the entire world is paying more attention to the subject of responsibility is because of the issues that cannot be solved only with the help of government, social organizations, or political and economic agencies; it does require extensive changes in people's lifestyle. It also seems many social problems such as delinquency, crime and community behavioral problems are associated with low levels of personal and social responsibility. In addition, many studies show that responsibility in every society leads to better adjustments in social and human relations and increasing altruism and empathy. Therefore, this study has been done with the aim of investigating factors influencing social responsibility of student.

In order to achieve the objectives of this study, data was collected from a sample of 200 students of Zanjan University and Islamic Azad University of Zanjan branch through stratified random sampling method. A questionnaire was used as research tools. The questionnaire includes three sections; 1) the individual characteristics, 2) social responsibility (designed by Lee, 2009) and, 3) factors affecting responsibility such as family, friends, peers, education, religion and media, which were measured based on the five level Likert scale. In order to conduct the study, the instrument was made by a combination of established scales from previous research and some modified scales. In the next step, reliability and validity of survey instrument was evaluated. Face and content validity were confirmed by a panel of experts and key informants before the pre-test stage. The reliability of instrument was assessed by conducting a pilot study among 30 cases out of the original sample. The reliability of the instrument for the all sections based on Cronbach’s alpha coefficients value (more than .70) shows an acceptable level of internal consistency. The SPSS software was used for descriptive analysis (including frequency, percentage and mean), and AMOS was used for inferential analyses (using structural equation modeling and multivariate technique). Based on the conceptual model, it is assumed that factor such as family, friends and peers, the educational system and media in addition to having a direct effect on the dependent variable of social responsibility, indirectly and through the mediation variable of religiosity, affect the social responsibility too.

The results based on direct structural model show that there is a positive significant relationship between variables such as family, friends and peers, the educational system and media with the dependent variable, social responsibility, and together these variables explain 57% of variances of the dependent variable. Also, based on the mediation structural model, religiosity variable has a partial mediating role in the relationship between family, friends and peers, the educational system and media with students’ social responsibility. Family, as a social institution, has an important role in encouraging the social responsibility of children, youth and even adults. The results in this study also show that there is a significant relationship between family’s and student’s social responsibility. Bandura's social learning theory (2001) which reflects on the impact of children’s behavior confirms this relationship. In this regard, it is suggested that officials organize educational programs and training sessions in order to explain the role model of parents to increase children’s responsibility.