Mental Well-Being and Religious Values Among Muslim-Sunni Groups Across Four Cities.

Abstract

Mental well-being as a subject is much integrated with other fields of knowledge. Thus, in this study, chosen variables common to other constructs in different fields of knowledge such as self-development, personal goal, resilience, piety, hope and social interest were used as significant constructs to correlate positively with mental well-being. The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (W-EMWS) was mainly used to gauge mental well-being among respondents in this study. The focus of the study was to investigate the mental well-being among the diverse Muslim-Sunni groups in selected cities in different countries with differences in nationalities, cultures, and values; yet similar in terms of religion and sect, that is, Islam and Sunni. The study was to determine whether religiosity values (Islam and Sunni) among the different Muslim groups contributed to their mental well-being. A sample size of  989 respondents was selected from Istanbul, Republic of Türkiye; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Lagos, Nigeria; and London, United Kingdom. The results from this study indicated that several factors such as self-acceptance, social interest, and self-development significantly correlated to mental well-being among Muslim-Sunni respondents. As predicted, the study shows varying degrees of correlation among the Muslim-Sunni groups selected in different cities. However, religious values, such as piety and hope were moderately correlated with mental well-being among the Muslim-Sunni groups. The findings show promising results and future studies should expand into investigating the exploratory modelling of mental well-being and differences in the potential means of religious values across other Muslim countries from different backgrounds.