Effectiveness of Religious-based Life Skills Training on Religiosity of University Students: A Pilot Study

Longitudinal quantitative studies show that the level of religiosity in the last decade has been declining in Iran. These findings have some implications, one of which is a need for powerful interventions to improve and enhance religiousness. The present study, in answer to the current need, was done to develop a life skills training package based on Islamic teachings for employing in college context and facilitating the procedure of religiosity among university students. In so doing, using World Health Organization model and Islamic sources, a program constituting of 10 sessions was designed and its effectiveness was investigated in a sample group of 15 students of the University of Tehran. To collect the data two instrument were applied: Religiosity Scale for Students (Khodayarifard et al., 2013) and Positive Thinking Scale (Khodayarifard et al., 2012). The results of Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) with repeated measure design showed that the religiosity profile of the group in posttest stage is significantly different from that in the pretest stage. Examination of the between-subjects effects also showed that religious belief and religious affections have significantly increased; however, religious behavior did not change. On the other hand, results showed that there are significantly differences between the two stages (pretest and posttest) in the positive thinking profile of the group has  and its effect size is high. Therefore, we may conclude that it is possible to enhance some components of religiousness by the present program, although some changes needed to be made in the program to pave the ways for promoting “religious behaviors”.