Investigating the Role of Individualism in Secularizing the Structure and Subjectivity of Graduate Students of Yazd University

Secularization in the new world has transcended all societies, and this means that religion has a small role in the evolution and values of societies. In the meantime, several factors play a role in the severity of this phenomenon, one of which is the individualism of modern times. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the empirical relationship between individualism and secularization of students of Yazd University. The statistical population of this study was postgraduate students (Yazd and Ph.D.) of Yazd University in 2019. Using stratified sampling method, 380 people were selected as sample. The results showed that there was no relationship between students' gender and secularization (objective and subjective) but there was a relationship between marital status and objective secularization and the general index of secularization. There was a significant and positive relationship between the use of mass media and customization. There was a relationship between vertical individualism and subjective, objective customization, and the overall index of individualism but horizontal individualism was only concerned with the objective of secularization. Regression results showed that the variable of vertical individualism and media use explained more than 16% of the variance of customization variable.