Associations of religiosity, attitudes towards suicide and religious coping with suicidal ideation and suicide attempts in 11 muslim countries
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Date
2020-09-24
Authors
Hamdan, Motasem
Agha, Hazem
Et. al.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Elsevier Ltd.
Abstract
Objective: The study investigated the associations of religiosity, religious coping and suicide acceptance to suicide
ideation and attempts in 7427 young adults affiliating with Islam from 11 Muslim countries.
Method: A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data. We used F and χ2 tests and correlation
analyses to report descriptive statistics. Multi-group path models with (i) a zero-inflated Poisson distribution and,
(ii) a Binomial distribution were used to model the number of occurrences of suicidal ideation, and occurrence of
a suicide attempt, respectively.
Results: Religiosity was negatively associated with acceptability of suicide, but it was positively related to
punishment after death across the 11 countries. Religiosity was negatively associated with ever experiencing
suicidal ideation, both directly and indirectly through its association with attitudes towards suicide, especially
the belief in acceptability of suicide. Neither positive nor negative religious coping were related to suicidal
ideation. However, religiosity was negatively related to suicide attempts among those who experienced suicidal
ideation at least once. This association was mediated through the belief in acceptability of suicide and religious
coping. Negative religious coping was positively associated with suicide attempts probably because it weakened
the protective effects of religiosity.
Conclusions: Findings from this study suggest that the effects of religiosity in the suicidal process operate through
attitudes towards suicide. We therefore conclude that clinical assessment as well as research in suicidology may
benefit from paying due attention to attitudes towards suicide.
Description
Keywords
Muslim religiosity , Suicidal ideation , Suicidal behavior , Suicidal attitudes , Religious coping , Religious prohibition