Relationship between Attachment to God and Happiness and Life Satisfaction: A Comparison between Spiritual Students and Non-Spiritual Students

Happiness and life satisfaction play an important role in increasing mental well-being and preventing mental disorders. The purpose of this study was to compare the relationship of attachment to God with happiness and life satisfaction in spiritual students (tollāb) and non-spiritual students (Non-tollāb) [tollāb ‘طلاب’ is the plural form of talabe ‘طلبه’, and refers to the students who study Islamic sciences in seminaries]. In this descriptive-correlational study, 461 married people residing in Pardisan Settlement, in Qom (198 spiritual students and 263 non-spiritual students) were selected through multi-stage cluster sampling. The participants completed attachment to God questionnaire, happiness questionnaire, life satisfaction questionnaire, and demographic questionnaire. For analyzing data, Pearson correlation, ANOVA and Fisher’s statistical Z-test bySPSS-24 statistical software were employed. Findings showed that the relationship between ‘attachment to God’ and ‘life satisfaction and happiness’ in both groups was positive. Also, the findings indicated that the differences between spiritual students and non-spiritual students in research variables and correlation coefficients were not significant.