A Study on the Structural Relationships of Personality Traits and Political Participation among Students with the Mediation of Religious Beliefs

Political participation as one of the major indicators of development is a very important function of people's unique personality-interactive traits, particularly among students. The present research was conducted with the aim of examining the mediatory role of religious beliefs in the relationship between students' personality traits and their political participation. This descriptive-correlational research applied the methodology of structural equation modeling. The population included all the students of Ardakan University in the academic year 2020-2021. 300 students were selected among them by the convenience sampling as the sample. The NEO-Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) (short form) (McCrae & Costa, 1992), the questionnaire of political participation (Farajzadeh, 2014), and the questionnaire of religious beliefs (Khodayarifard, 1995) were used for collecting the data. The data analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics and showed that the personality traits of neuroticism, extroversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness have a significant direct effect on political participation among students (P<0.05); while the personality trait of flexibility does not have a significant direct effect on political participation (P<0.05). In addition, religious beliefs have a significant direct effect on political participation (P<0.05). The personality traits of extroversion, agreeableness, flexibility, and conscientiousness also have a significant direct effect on religious beliefs among students (P<0.05); but the personality trait of neuroticism does not have a significant direct effect on religious beliefs (P<0.05). Moreover, religious beliefs significantly mediate the relationship between the personality traits of extroversion, agreeableness, flexibility, and conscientiousness and political participation among students (P<0.05).