Indonesian students’ religiousness, comfort, and anger toward God during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many religious college students have found comfort in God, while others may have developed anger toward God; however, no studies have systematically compared the multidimensional effects of religiousness on how Muslim and Christian students react to stressors such as COVID-19. This study addressed this gap in the literature by investigating which of the Four Basic Dimensions of Religiousness Scale (4-BDRS: believing, bonding, behaving, and belonging) were significant predictors for both taking comfort in and feeling anger toward God among Muslim (n = 550) and Christian (n = 334) college students in Indonesia, while also controlling for the influence of neuroticism, a known predictor for attitudes toward God. Muslims reported that all dimensions of the 4-BDRS were significant predictors of comfort, with bonding as a negative predictor (β = –.09, p = .04), while Christians reported that belonging (β = .07, p = .34) was the only insignificant predictor. Muslims reported that believing (β = –.22, p ⩽ .001) and behaving (β = –.19, p = .002) were negative predictors of anger, while Christians reported negative effects only for bonding (β = –.17, p = .04); however, bonding did not significantly predict anger when analyzed separately for men and women. Therefore, to decrease their anger toward and increase the comfort they find in God, Muslims must focus on their beliefs and exercise the commandments of Islam. Christians, though, must focus on increasing cognitive, affective, and behavioral aspects of religiousness to find comfort, while having better personal relationships with God could be key in reducing anger toward God.