An Exploration of How Religiosity and Personality Traits Influence The Mental Health of University Students

Abstract

Religiosity is widely recognized as a vital psychological resource that significantly contributes to mental health, and personality traits have also been extensively researched. Nevertheless, limited research has explored how religiosity and personality interact, or how their interaction influences mental health outcomes. This study aims to fill that gap by examining the intricate relationships among religiosity, the Big Five personality traits, the Dark Triad personality traits, and mental health in university students in Pakistan. Additionally, it investigates whether Big Five and Dark Triad traits moderate the strength of the relationship between religiosity and mental health. Employing a quantitative, cross-sectional, correlational design, data were collected from 500 university students aged 18–30 through convenience sampling. Participants completed the Centrality of Religiosity Scale, the Big Five Inventory, the Short Dark Triad Scale, and the Warwick–Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale. The findings revealed that religiosity did not significantly predict mental well-being. Religiosity was positively associated with openness and negatively associated with conscientiousness. Multiple regression analysis showed that agreeableness and narcissism positively predicted mental well-being, whereas extraversion was a significant negative predictor. Among all personality traits, narcissism significantly moderated the relationship between religiosity and mental well-being. Most importantly, narcissism significantly moderated the relationship between religiosity and mental health (B = 0.03, p = .011). These findings offer profound insights, particularly regarding Muslim students, and underscore important policy implications and recommendations for fostering mental health through religiosity and personality assessment.

Keywords: Religiosity, Mental health, University Students, Big Five and Dark Triad traits