Moderating effect of religiosity as the coping strategy on the relationship between stressors and mental health
Keywords:
Volunteer, workload & environment, knowledge & skills; religiosity; coping style; psychological distress; mental & physical illness; mental health; COVID-19.Abstract
The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on people’s mental health is extremely concerning. However, there are research findings showing that religiosity is associated with better mental health. Therefore, this study is aimed to gain more understanding on the effects of religiosity as the coping style on the relationship between stressors and mental health of volunteers at the Klang Valley Vaccine Distribution Centers (PPV), Malaysia. This is quantitative research which involved 226 participants who were volunteers at the PPVs in Shah Alam and Kuala Lumpur. The findings showed that there are significant relationships between the stressors comprising workload & environment, organizer & colleagues, dealing with recipients and knowledge & skills and mental health of these volunteers. Religiosity, on the contrary, has negative significant relationship with all of these stressors, but positive significant relationship with mental health of these volunteers. This further endorses the other research findings that religiosity can be one of the coping strategies of these volunteers to maintain their overall mental health while working at the PPVs.