Applied Research Quality Life (2009) 4:109–127 DOI 10.1007/s11482-009-9076-8

An Exploratory Study of Religiosity, Meaning in Life and Subjective Wellbeing in Muslim Students from Algeria Habib Tiliouine & Abbes Belgoumidi

Received: 29 August 2008 / Accepted: 18 June 2009 / Published online: 1 July 2009 # Springer Science + Business Media B.V./ The International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (ISQOLS) 2009

Abstract This study explores the relationships between religiosity, Meaning in Life and Subjective Wellbeing (SWB) in a sample of 495 Muslim students (330 Females, and 165 males) from Algeria. Their Mean age is 21.26 (SD2.30). Relying on experts’ judgments and pilot-testing, a Comprehensive Measure of Islamic Religiosity (CMIR) has been developed. It consists of 60 items covering four broad areas with high inter-correlations: Religious Belief, Religious Practice, Religious Altruism, and Enrichment of religious experience. A short version of the ‘Presence of Meaning in Life’ (PML) scale, Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS), and Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI) are also administered in one set of questionnaires, together with religiosity items. The results indicate that Religious Belief and Religious Altruism significantly contribute in providing subjects with meaning in life. Nevertheless, Hierarchical Regression Analyses show that only Religious Belief makes a significant contribution in both SWLS and PWI. But, this effect has almost totally been accounted for by Meaning in life in the second step. Comparisons on the basis of the demographic characteristics show that males marginally differ from females (p average, p=.000 Practice: F(2, 487)=41.65 (average>low, p=.008; high>low, p=.000; high> average, p=.000 Altruism: (2, 489)=33.62 (average>low, p=.008; high>low, p=.000; high> average, p=.000 Enrichment: (2, 491)=35.93 (average>low, p=.003; high>low, p=.000; high> average, p=.000 *p