Indonesia is a highly religious country, and is therefore a fertile ground for studies on religiousness. There are six religions that are endorsed by the government. Therefore, a well validated scale that can be used on those six religions are a necessity. Unfortunately, only a few studies have verified the factorial structure of such scale. The Four Basic Dimensions of Religiousness (4-BDRS), a new multidimensional scale, shows a factorial structure that has been confirmed in several countries across different religions. The current study aimed to confirm the factorial structure of 4-BDRS and its measurement invariance across genders among Muslim and Christian college students in Indonesia (two major religions in Indonesia). Data were collected from 949 college students from nine universities in the Jakarta Metropolitan area. A confirmatory factor analysis supported the four factors model of the 4-BDRS in the Indonesian context. The result of measurement invariance shows that there are configural, metric, and scalar invariances. Gender comparison showed that Muslim males had higher scores on all four dimensions of religiousness compared with females, while for Christians, there were no gender differences. The 4BDRS appears to be a valid scale to measure religiousness among Muslims and Christians in Indonesia.

The role and mechanism that religion plays in an individual’s life as suggested by many international studies might be substantially different with the one practiced in Indonesia. Studies in the Un...

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.

Most of the current research has found that highly religious people have better well-being compared to people with low religiousness. However, the former group is not immune from occasionally feeling anger toward God, which has an adverse effect on well-being. The purpose of this research is to study whether anger toward God moderates the effect of religiousness on the well-being of Christian college students. The data were derived from 228 respondents (55 male) from a religious university using the Four Basic Dimensions of Religiousness (4-BDRS), the Attitude toward God Scale (ATGS-9), and the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS). The results of the moderation analysis using Process version 3 demonstrated that Anger toward God significantly moderated the effect of religiousness toward well-being (b = .01, 95% Cl [.001, .023], t = 2.14, p < .05). The higher the level of anger toward God, the lesser the effect of religiousness on well-being. Therefore, it is essential for students to resolve their divine struggles. The implications and applications of this study are discussed.

Religious individuals and communities often struggle with anger toward God (ATG) upon experiencing suffering. ATG is related to poor mental health. Certain types of religiousness can moderate the effect of this negative feeling on well-being; however, research varies. Therefore, this study aims to determine whether religion at the individual (spirituality) or communal levels (moral community) may affect the association of ATG with well-being. Moderation analysis was performed on data from 307 students at a Christian university in Indonesia. Spirituality lowered the effect of ATG as one form of a religious stressor on well-being, but moral community did not. Both the cognitive and affective aspects of spirituality (individual level) are needed to buffer the effects of ATG on well-being. Conversely, the moral/behavior and belonging/communal aspect of a moral community (communal level) do not appear to ensure support for the individual with ATG. The implications of this study are discussed below.

Beberapa riset menunjukkan kontribusi religiositas terhadap kesehatan mental selama pandemi tidak selalu seperti yang diharapkan. Penelitian ini berusaha melihat kaitan konsep diferensiasi diri dari teori keluarga Bowen dalam kontribusi religiositas terhadap kesehatan mental. Responden penelitian ini berjumlah 1574 mahasiswa dari 16 universitas di Jabodetabek. Hasil hierarchical multiple regression menemukan dimensi behaving dari 4-BDRS justru memberikan kontribusi negatif pada kesehatan mental sedangkan dimensi maintaining identity dari diferensiasi diri berkontribusi positif pada kesehatan mental. Implikasi dari hasil ini akan dijelaskan. Some research shows that the contribution of religiosity to mental health during a pandemic is not always as expected. This study seeks to examine the relationship between the concept of self-differentiation from Bowen's family theory in the contribution of religiosity to mental health. The respondents of this research were 1574 students from 16 universities in Jabodetabek. The results of hierarchical multiple regression found that the behaving dimension of 4-BDRS actually gave a negative contribution to mental health, while the dimension of maintaining identity from self-differentiation contributed positively to mental health. The implications of these results will be explained.