Structural Modeling of the Relationship between Psychological Empowerment and Quality of Life Based on the Mediating Role of Religious Beliefs in Patients with Drug Abuse

Drug abuse is one of the most important health, psychological, and social challenges that most countries in the world face in some way and imposes many problems upon the societies. This study was conducted with the aim of structural modeling of the relationship between psychological empowerment and quality of life based on the mediating role of religious beliefs in patients with drug abuse.

The method of this research is descriptive-correlational based on structural equation modeling. The statistical population of this study included all drug abusers who referred to the Peace Canopy addiction treatment center, located in Rasht. The participants included 300 patients selected by available sampling method. Psychological Empowerment Scale, World Health Organization quality of Life Scale and religious orientation scale were used to collect data. Also, structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. In the present study, all ethical considerations were observed and the authors reported no conflict of interests.

The results showed that all fit indices were in the desired range. The direct effect of psychological empowerment (0.45) and inward religious belief (0.29) on quality of life was positive and the direct effect of outward religious belief on quality of life (-0.18) was negative and both were at the significant level of 0.001. The direct effect of psychological empowerment on inward religious belief (0.20) was positive and the direct effect of psychological empowerment on outward religious belief (0.17) was negative and both were significant at the level of 0.01. The indirect effect of psychological empowerment on quality of life through inward religious belief (0.05) and outward religious belief (0.03) was positive and significant at the level of 0.05. Therefore, it can be stated that inward and outward religious beliefs play a mediating role in the relationship between psychological empowerment and quality of life.

According to the results, the higher the religious belief in the patients with drug abuse, the higher their psychological empowerment and quality of life; therefore, religious beliefs as an Islamic moral variable can affect the psychological empowerment and life quality of the patients with drug abuse.