Religious Coping, Religiosity, Depression and Anxiety among Medical Students in a Multi-Religious Setting

Francis, Benedict; Gill, Jesjeet Singh; Yit Han, Ng; Petrus, Chiara Francine; Azhar, Fatin Liyana; Ahmad Sabki, Zuraida; Said, Mas Ayu; Ong Hui, Koh; Chong Guan, Ng; Sulaiman, Ahmad Hatim

doi:10.3390/ijerph16020259

Submit to this Journal Review for this Journal Edit a Special Issue

Article Menu

...

Open AccessArticle

Religious Coping, Religiosity, Depression and Anxiety among Medical Students in a Multi-Religious Setting

Benedict Francis

^1,*

Jesjeet Singh Gill

¹,

Ng Yit Han

²,

Chiara Francine Petrus

³,

¹,

¹,

^4,5,6,

¹,

and

Department of Psychological Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia

Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia

Hospital Raja Permaisuri Bainun, Jalan Raja Ashman Shah, Ipoh 30450, Malaysia

⁴

Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia

⁵

Julius Centre University of Malaya, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia

⁶

University of Malaya Centre of Addiction Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16(2), 259; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16020259

Received: 28 November 2018 / Revised: 30 December 2018 / Accepted: 15 January 2019 / Published: 17 January 2019

(This article belongs to the Section Mental Health)

View Full-Text Download PDF Citation Export

Abstract

Medical students are vulnerable to depression and anxiety due to the nature of their academic life. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of depressive and anxiety symptoms among medical students and the association between religious coping, religiosity and socio-demographic factors with anxiety and depressive symptoms. A cross sectional design was used for this study. Scales used were the Malay version of the Duke Religious Index (DUREL-M), the Malay version of the Brief Religious Coping Scale (Brief RCOPE) and the Malay version Hospital and Anxiety Depression Scale (HADS-M). 622 students participated in this study. They scored moderately on the organized (mean: 3.51) and non-organized religious (mean: 3.85) subscales of the DUREL, but had high intrinsic religiosity (mean: 12.18). The prevalence of anxiety and depressive symptoms were 4.7% and 17.4% respectively, which is lower than local as well as international data. Islam, negative religious coping and the presence of depressive symptoms were significantly associated with anxiety symptoms. Only the presence of anxiety symptoms was significantly associated with depressive symptoms. Negative religious coping, rather than positive religious coping, has significant association with depressive and anxiety symptoms. Redirecting focus towards negative religious coping is imperative to boost mental health outcomes among medical students. View Full-Text

Keywords: coping; mental health; anxiety; depression; medical students

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Francis, B.; Gill, J.S.; Yit Han, N.; Petrus, C.F.; Azhar, F.L.; Ahmad Sabki, Z.; Said, M.A.; Ong Hui, K.; Chong Guan, N.; Sulaiman, A.H. Religious Coping, Religiosity, Depression and Anxiety among Medical Students in a Multi-Religious Setting. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16, 259. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16020259

AMA Style

Francis B, Gill JS, Yit Han N, Petrus CF, Azhar FL, Ahmad Sabki Z, Said MA, Ong Hui K, Chong Guan N, Sulaiman AH. Religious Coping, Religiosity, Depression and Anxiety among Medical Students in a Multi-Religious Setting. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2019; 16(2):259. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16020259

Chicago/Turabian Style

Francis, Benedict, Jesjeet S. Gill, Ng Yit Han, Chiara F. Petrus, Fatin L. Azhar, Zuraida Ahmad Sabki, Mas A. Said, Koh Ong Hui, Ng Chong Guan, and Ahmad H. Sulaiman. 2019. "Religious Coping, Religiosity, Depression and Anxiety among Medical Students in a Multi-Religious Setting" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 16, no. 2: 259. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16020259

Find Other Styles

Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

Article Metrics

Abstract views Pdf views Html views

Article Menu

Religious Coping, Religiosity, Depression and Anxiety among Medical Students in a Multi-Religious Setting

Abstract

Share and Cite

Article Metrics

Article Access Statistics

Article Access Map by Country/Region

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI