Life Satisfaction and Religiosity among College Teachers

The present study aimed to explore the relationship between life satisfaction and religiosity among college teachers. Life satisfaction refers to cognitive and affective assessments of life. Religiosity refers to behavior, emotions, and thoughts which are derivative from beliefs about the sacred, associated with a particular religious ritual. A sample of 100 males and females college teachers was selected in a crosssectional survey research design. Muslim Religiosity Personality Inventory (MRPI) by Krauss (2011) and Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) by Diener (1985) were used to measure the religiosity and life satisfaction respectively. Permissions to use the scales have already obtained from authors. Data were collected from a convenient sample of 100 college teachers from district Gujrat. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 20.0 version was used for statistical analyses. Findings of Pearson Product Moment Correlations revealed that life satisfaction is positively associated with religious rituals and maumalats at (p< .001 and p< .01 respectively). Multiple Hierarchal Regression Analysis showed that religious rituals and maumalats predict 29% variance on life satisfaction. The research has implementation that religiosity can play a vital role in life satisfaction of male and female college teachers.


Introduction
The present study aimed to explore relationship between life satisfaction and religiosity among college teachers of district Gujrat.Teaching is known to be a dedicated, less paid and stressful occupation in Pakistan and as a consequence many teachers experience from less life satisfaction.There are many external factors like monthly income, facilities of life provided by government, religiosity and social status that have been observed matter a lot in the life satisfaction of any individual (Barbera & Gurhan, 1997;Sacks, Stevenson, & Wolfers, 2013).However, some internal factors of the teachers also play an important role in the life satisfaction of teachers like personality, emotional intelligence, optimism, and religiosity (Aghili & Kumar, 2008;Baco, 2010;Gull &Dawood, 2013).In Pakistan we cannot expect more from external sources of life satisfaction.So, it is important to know internal factors affecting the life satisfaction of teachers.Religiosity is one of the important factors that may affect the teachers' life satisfaction.Life satisfaction refers to cognitive and affective assessments of life.These assessments contain emotional responses to occasions as well as cognitive judgment of fulfillment and contentment (Diener, Oishi & Lucas, 2003).So, life satisfaction is a broad concept which comprises experiencing pleasant emotions and low level of negative moods (Diener, Oishi & Lucas, 2003).Religiosity refers to behavior, emotions, and thoughts which are derivative from beliefs about the sacred and associated with a particular religious ritual (Dedert, Studts, Weissbecker, Salmon, Banis & Septhon, 2004, as cited in Sutantoputi& Watt, 2013).Simply, religiosity may be referred to as state of one's belief in God, characterized by his virtue and spiritual passion.Spirituality and religious passion are positively associated with one's belief in God and religiosity (Salleh, 2012).Religiosity is found to be identical with such terms as religiousness, orthodoxy, faith, belief, piousness, devotion, and holiness (Lewis, 1978;as cited in Holdcraft, 2006).
Significance of the study: Many researches on life satisfaction have done in various Western countries, different culture and region.In light of past studies it could be assumed that in Pakistani culture and Islamic background the religiosity can play a vital role in life satisfaction of teachers.As Pakistan has variety of cultures, customs, and traditions in five provinces, FATA and Azad Kashmir, but religion is common in all regions of Pakistan.So, this study has great significance for all regions of Pakistan.In Pakistan external factors like income, facilities of life and social status that have been observed matter a lot in life satisfaction are not fulfilling appropriately.By knowing internal factors like personality, intelligence, optimism and religiosity, it is possible to enhance life satisfaction.Religiosity is one of the important factors that may affect the life satisfaction in three ways.First, religion could be a source for clarifying and resolving challenging situations.Second, religion may work to increase a sense of self-empowerment.Third, religion may also provide a sense of meaning, direction and personal identity.Gull & Dawood (2013) revealed that religiosity has significant positive relationship with life satisfaction.The current study will explore role of religiosity on life satisfaction among male and female college teachers of district Gujrat.

Methodology
Participants: Participants were 100 college teachers (50 male and 50 female) of district Gujrat.The participants were selected through convenient sampling strategy.Age range of teachers was 20 to 50 years and their education ranged from M.A/M.Sc. to PhD.Monthly income of teachers ranged from 10,000 to 50,000 rupees.

Measures MRPI:
Muslim Religiosity Personality Inventory developed by Krauss (2011) measures religious rituals and maumalats.It consists of 33 items.Eighteen items in the scale measures Rituals and fifteen items measures maumalats.Participants are asked to answer to the statements relevant to their personal experience.On each item answers are to be given on 5-point rating scale (1 = never, 5 = always) with high score meaning high rituals and maumalats, and low score indicated minimum rituals and maumalats.The reliability coefficient of Muslim Religiosity Personality Inventory was found (α = 0.89) (Krauss, 2011).In current research reliability coefficient was found (α = 0.90).

SWLS:
Life satisfaction was assessed using Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener, 1985).It consists of five items.Each item is to be rated on 7-point rating scale (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree).Possible scale scores range from 5 to 35 with high score meaning high satisfaction and low score suggested low life satisfaction.The reliability coefficient of Satisfaction with Life scale was (α = 0.82) (Diener, Oishi & Lucas, 2003).The reliability coefficient in present study was found (α = 0.83).
Demographics: Demographic information about teacher's age, gender, father and mother education, father and mother occupation, marital status, spouse education and occupation, sect, region of residence, family system, monthly income, employment type and qualification were also obtained on a data sheet.

Procedure:
The consent form from each of the participant and permission for data collection was taken from competent authority of the institution.Participants were briefed about confidentiality and privacy of the research.Written instructions on the booklet of the questionnaire were read to them and they were encouraged to ask any query regarding questionnaire.Time taken for completion of questionnaire was 10 to 15 minutes approximately.
Statistical Analysis: Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 20 versions was used in this study for statistical analysis.Descriptive analysis was used to explore the frequencies and percentages of demographic variables.Pearson Product Moment Correlation was used to find out correlation between life satisfaction and religiosity.Hierarchal Multiple Regression Analysis was conducted to find out the predictors of life satisfaction.1 shows that life satisfaction is positively associated with religious rituals and religious maumalats(r = .45,p< .001and r = .35,p< .01respectively).Hierarchal Multiple Regression Analysis was carried out to find out the predictors of life satisfaction.In first step life satisfaction was entered as outcome variable and demographics (age, gender, sect and marital status) were entered as predictors.No significant predictor emerged in this step.In second step religious rituals and maumalats were entered as predictors and life satisfaction as outcome variable.Religious rituals appeared as a significant predictor of life satisfaction withβ = .37,p< .01.Religious maumalats also emerged as a significant predictor of life satisfaction with β = .21,p <.05.Demographics (age, gender, sect and marital status) and religiosity overall, accounts 29% variance on life satisfaction.

Discussion:
The current study was conducted to find out the association between life satisfaction and religiosity among college teachers.The sample of the study was teachers of colleges of district Gujarat.Responses from 100 teachers provide the basics following findings.Results of current study are also in line with those of conducted in other Islamic countries.Khalek& Lester (2013), Khalek (2010) studied the positive relationship between subjective well-being and religiosity among Kuwaiti undergraduates.Aghili& Kumar (2008) studied the happiness feelings in Iranian employees and found positive relationship between religiosity and happiness.Belogoumidi & Tilioiine (2008) investigated the positive relationship between religiosity and satisfaction with life in Muslim students from Algeria.Current results that religiosity and life satisfaction are positively related to each other are also consistent with studies conducted in non-Muslim countries.Barbera & Gürhan (1997) conducted a study to understand the positive relationship of life satisfaction with selected secular and sacred values in New York.Lima and Putnam (2010) conducted study in America and provide strong evidence of impact of religion on life satisfaction.Levin (2011) studied positive relationship between satisfaction with life and importance of God's in life, in samples of Jewish respondents from Israel.Lai (2010) studied the positive association between religion and life satisfaction in convenient samples of Chinese in Hong Kong and Australia.
In many researches similar findings found with different scales to measure life satisfaction and religiosity.Gull &Dawood (2013) used Religiosity Index and Trait Well-being Inventory to study the relationship between life satisfaction and religiosity.Khalek & Lester (2013)  .29 physical health, psychological health, and religiosity.Khalek (2010) used World Health Organization QOL scale-Brief (WHOQOL-Bref) and six self-rating scales of physical health, mental health, happiness, satisfaction with life and religiosity to investigate the relationship between life satisfaction and religiosity.The findings of current study suggested that there is a significant positive relationship between life satisfaction and religiosity.So, it supports the hypothesis of the study that life satisfaction will be positively related to religiosity.These findings are consistent with those of Baco, 2010;Barbera & Gurhan, 1997;Chang, 2009;Gull &Dawood, 2013;Lai, 2010;Khalek, 2010;Khalek & Lester, 2013;Levin, 2011;Lima &Putnum, 2010;Mccullough&Willough, 2009;Belogoumidi & Tilioiine (2008).Findings of their studies revealed that there is a significant positive relationship between life satisfaction and religiosity.

Conclusion and Recommendations
Limitations: We cannot generalize the study results without throwing light on limitations of the study.Several drawbacks were found in current study.Main limitation of the study is its cross-sectional design which inhibits from drawing causal inferences.From studies with this type of designs we can only determine if the variables are associated to each other or not.Another drawback of current research of is that we cannot claim about the teachers being representative of general population because they were not randomly selected.There is a probability that participant's self-presentational concerns have effect their answers.
Another main limitation of the research is that the sample size was small which affect the generalizability of the research.Another limitation was that Forced-choice questions may leave insufficient room for variation in choice.Questionnaires used in the research were not standardized in the context of Pakistan.
Implications: Practical implication of study suggests that religiosity play an important role to enhance life satisfaction in male and female college teachers of district Gujrat.Beside all other demographics (income, education, rural/urban) religiosity becomes the strongest predictor of life satisfaction.Religiosity and the teachings of Islam; rituals and maumalat, teach us contentment and tolerance hence, increase the life satisfaction.
Recommendations: Questions should be standardized according to local norms.It is recommended for further research that qualitative and quantitative, mixed design should be used.
The current study was designed to explore the relationship between religiosity as predictor and life satisfaction as outcome variable.In present study religious rituals and maumalats were found significant predictors of life satisfaction of male and female college teachers.

Table 2 : Hierarchal Regression Analysis for Study Variables Predicting Life Satisfaction (N = 100)
investigated positive association between life satisfaction and religiosity, using Arabic Scale of Mental Health (ASMH) and self-rating scales to assess