An Analysis of the Role of Religion in Socio-Mental Health in the Face of the Covid-19 Pandemic

The globalization of Covid-19, the high rate of disease transmission and mortality resulting from it, has explicitly persuaded researchers and thinkers, especially sociologists, to consider it a social issue. This study aims to discover the interpretation and meaning of religion from the perspective of male students living in Tehran in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on their mental and social health. The research method of the present paper is qualitative and the strategy of the underlying theory has been used. For this purpose, in-depth and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 23 male students living in Tehran who were selected by purposive sampling and snowball methods. Eight main topics and one core topic were extracted through the data coding system including fear of death, strengthening thinking and belief in the hereafter and the world after death, highlighting the ritual aspect of religiosity, strengthening the belief aspect of religion, religion and peace during the pandemic, strengthening social capital and social health during the pandemic outbreak, the emergence of new meanings of life, and changes in diet and lifestyle. In addition, "Covid-19 pandemic and return to spirituality" was selected as the core topic, and finally, the paradigm model extracted from the data was set up. The findings suggested that male students in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic had significantly strengthened religiosity in the belief and ritual aspects or experienced a return to spirituality. Furthermore, the role of religion in improving the mental and physical health of these people in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic is significant and important. An issue that in the global age with an individualistic culture, invites the human eye to concepts such as cohesion and solidarity, intimacy and social participation, charity in crisis and peace in life.