How Religious Attitudes Are Associated with Depression in Turkish Society during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Mediating Role of Meaning in Life

Abstract

Religion has an important role in coping with the social and psychological problems encountered in human life. However, one topic has not been studied enough, namely that religious attitudes, which are adopting and living religious values, have positive contributions by changing the characteristics of individuals coping with problems. In this study, the indirect role of meaning in life in the association of religion with depression was examined. The current study was conducted online and was cross-sectional and quantitative, with 1571 individuals aged 18-30 in Turkey. For this purpose, scales of religious attitude, depression, and meaning in life were used. First confirmatory factor analysis, and then correlation and multiple regression analyses, were carried out to test the hypotheses using the SPSS, Amos, and Process Macro Plug-in programs. According to the test results, religious attitude has positive relations with meaning in life, and meaning in life has a negative association with depression. Therefore, it was understood that the presence of meaning in life and the search for meaning in life had mediating roles in the relations of religious attitudes with depression.