Subjective well-being and religiosity: significant associations among college students from Egypt and the United Kingdom

ABSTRACT Previous research, mostly on Western samples, indicates that religiosity is associated with lowered anxiety. The objective of this study was to explore the associations between religiosity and subjective well-being (SWB): happiness, satisfaction with life, and mental health in Egyptian and British samples. Samples of 220 Egyptian and 205 British college students were recruited. The results indicated that Egyptians obtained the high mean score on religiosity, whereas British had the high SWB mean scores. All the correlations between the self-rating scales in both samples were statistically significant and positive. A single component was extracted and labelled ‘SWB and religiosity’ in both countries. Despite the large differences between the Egyptian and British samples in both the mean scale scores and culture, the results of the correlations and the component were similar. On the basis of the responses of the current two samples, it was concluded that those who consider themselves as religious experienced greater well-being.