European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Introduction: Depression is a global mental health issue. Vulnerability for this condition increases in the university student population, specifically medical and health science disciplines. Previous evidence showed that religiosity and spirituality were inversely linked with depression. They have also been predominantly treated as one construct. Still, the mechanisms of these relationships are vague.
 
Objective: This study aims to investigate mediating roles religious and spiritual coping played on the relationships between religiosity, spirituality and depression among medical and health sciences students.
 
Methods: A total of 151 medical and health science students were recruited from various universities across Malaysia. The BDI-II, DUREL, Spirituality Scale (SS), RCOPE and SCQ were the measures used in this study.
 
Results: Religious coping (Positive) was responsible for full mediation between religiosity and depression. Positive spiritual coping partially mediated between spirituality and depression, while negative spiritual coping had a slight partial mediating effect.