The effect of university students' self-confidence levels and perceptions of god on religious coping styles

Any event in life can cause physical, mental, and spiritual stress to an individual when perceived as threatening. The effort to alleviate tense moods in the face of stress is called 'coping'. During and coping with stress, the individual's emotions and thoughts regarding the situation are triggered. While an individual tries to make sense of and interpret stress, his/her personal characteristics affect the process. The self-confidence, social support mechanisms, coping skills and many personal characteristics of the person experiencing stress, as well as religious and spiritual beliefs, affect understanding the stress factor and coping with stress. The individual's positive or negative orientation towards religion in the process of making sense and interpreting the stress factor is called "Religious Coping". Individuals may interpret the same stress factor differently. While one person may view it as a test from God and seek solace in prayer, patience, worship, and religious community, another may view it as punishment and distance themselves from God and religious practices. Positive and negative forms of religious coping are so distinguished. Individual characteristics can influence whether or not a situation is perceived as stressful, as well as when coping with stress. In the religious coping process, individual characteristics may lead the person to positive religious coping or negative religious coping. Self-confidence and approach to God are the most influential factors in the religious coping process. This study examines the impact of individuals' perception of God and self-confidence levels on their religious coping styles while keeping the stress factor relatively constant. In order to keep the stress factor as constant as possible, the "Religious Coping Scale" developed by Pargament and adapted into Turkish by Ekşi and Sayın, and the "Self-Confidence Scale" developed by Akın were administered to 363 senior students studying at the Faculties and Schools in the Çorum central campus of Hitit University. Additionally, the "God Perception Scale" developed by Güler was applied. The study also included the application of the 'Personal Information Form' to participants, which gathered information on gender, unit of study, school attended, economic status, perceived economic level, and the size of the place where most of their life was spent. Various statistical analyses, as well as Structural Equation Modeling, Path Analysis, and Mediation Test applications, were conducted and interpreted. The study found that women had higher rates of positive religious coping and fear and love-oriented perception of God compared to men. On the other hand, men had higher rates of negative religious coping. Additionally, the study found that college students had significantly higher rates of positive religious coping and fear and love-oriented perception of God compared to faculty students. There is no significant difference between the positive and negative religious coping styles and the levels of love and fear-oriented God perceptions of the students of the Faculty of Theology compared to the students of other educational units. In the survey conducted during the period when the minimum wage was 5,000 TL; the group reporting an income of 15,001 TL and above had a significantly lower positive religious coping rate compared to the groups reporting an income of 0-5,000 TL and 5,001-10,000 TL. Additionally, this group had significantly lower results for love-oriented God perception compared to the group reporting an income of 5,001-10,000 TL and 10,001-15,000 TL. When examining the the perceived economic situation, individuals who perceive their income as high have a significantly higher positive religious coping rate compared to those who perceive their income as low or medium. Results have also shown that those with a high income level also have higher levels of love-oriented God perception and self-confidence than those with lower incomes. Research findings suggest that individuals who spend the majority of their lives in villages and towns have a higher positive religious coping rate and love-oriented perception of God compared to those who spend the majority of their lives in metropolitan cities. The study also found that the dependent variable of self-confidence did not significantly differ from any demographic independent variable, except for the perceived economic level. The study obtained various results analysing data on religious coping, perception of God, and self-confidence scales. The results of the Structural Equation Modelling analysis showed that perception of God has a positive effect on positive religious coping and a negative effect on negative religious coping. While the positive effect of self-confidence on positive religious coping was significant, its negative effect on negative religious coping was found to be insignificant. The Path Analysis conducted in conjunction with Structural Equation Modeling revealed that fear-oriented perception of God has bothpositive and negative impacts on religious coping. The perception of God as love has a positive effect on positive religious coping, but it does not significantly affect negative religious coping. Self-confidence positively affects positive religious coping, but there is no significant interaction between self-confidence and negative religious coping. Based on the results of the Structural Equation Modeling and Path Analysis, it was examined whether self-confidence has a mediating role between the perception of God and religious coping. The findings indicate that self-confidence plays a mediating role in the effect of God perception on positive religious coping. However, there was no significant interaction between self-confidence and negative religious coping in the effect of God perception on negative religious coping. Therefore, it can be concluded that self-confidence did not have a mediating role between God perception and negative religious coping. Upon interpreting the results, it has been observed that individuals with a love-oriented perception of God approach God more compassionately and tend to engage in positive religious coping because they describe the stressful events they experience as "God's test". It has been determined that individuals who are oriented towards love towards God do not significantly affect the way they describe stress as "God's punishment". The research suggests that individuals with a fear-oriented perception of God tend to engage in positive religious coping. Although it is thought that individuals with a fear-oriented perception of God do not interpret stressful events as "God's punishment", on the contrary, they have been observed to interact negatively with negative religious coping approaches. It has been found that individuals with high self-confidence often use the term "God's test" in the face of stressful events, but the negative religious coping rates of individuals do not differ according to their self-confidence level. Therefore, it can be concluded that individuals with high perceptions of God, both with love and fear, and individuals with high self-confidence levels tend to use positive religious coping strategies more frequently. The study found that the university students with whom the study was carried out drew strength from positive religious coping strategies when dealing with stress. Additionally, it was observed that as the level of self-confidence increased, the perception of God and the rate of positive religious coping changed. Therefore, it is suggested that parents of university students, as well as education experts, psychologists, guidance and psychological counsellors, and spiritual counselors and guides who provide counseling services to university students, encourage positive religious coping and self-confidence-increasing activities to help students make sense of and cope with stress.