Citation

Kazi TB, Naidoo S. J. Relig. Health 2015; 55(3): 1010-1023.

Affiliation

Discipline of Psychology, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Howard College Campus, Durban, 4041, South Africa. naidoos15@ukzn.ac.za.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Academy of Religion and Mental Health, Publisher Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s10943-015-0167-6

PMID

26661826

Abstract

Despite international studies into religion's protective mechanism against suicidal tendencies, within South Africa there is a paucity of research investigating this relationship. This quantitative study investigates the relationship between religiosity and suicidal tendencies in a sample of Muslim students (N = 111). Two scales were used to test the hypothesis that religion mediates suicidal tendency: the Religious Orientation Test and the Multi-Attitude Suicide Tendency Scale. The findings confirmed this hypothesis but disconfirmed our second hypothesis that there would be gender differences between the variables. We concluded that a high degree of religiosity acts as a protective mechanism against suicidal tendencies and discuss the implications of our findings.

Language: en