Can attitudes toward God buffer the negative effect of neuroticism on life satisfaction

ABSTRACTThe COVID-19 pandemic has increased stress and anxiety and decreased life satisfaction, especially for those with a high level of neuroticism. In a religious country such as Indonesia, this pandemic may cause people, including college students, to feel anger toward God. Previous studies found that certain behaviours moderate the effect of neuroticism on life satisfaction. This study investigated the moderating effects of positive and negative attitudes toward God. A moderation analysis was performed on data obtained from 367 Christian and 547 Muslim students from 10 universities in the Jakarta metropolitan area. The findings revealed that a positive attitude toward God significantly moderates the connection between neuroticism and life satisfaction for Christians, whereas a negative attitude toward God does not moderate the same connection for both Muslims and Christians. The implications of this study are discussed below.KEYWORDS: Neuroticismattitude toward Godlife satisfactionmoderation: MuslimChristian Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Ethical approvalThis study was conducted in accordance with the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Board of Ethics of Konsorsium Psikologi Ilmiah Nusantara (No. 006/2020/Etik/KPIN)Additional informationFundingThe author (s) stated that they received financial assistance to carry out the research and write and/or publish this article. Funding for this study was provided by the Ministry of Education and Culture (Grant number 100. ADD/LL3/PG/2020).