Relation Between Quality of Image of God and Mental Health in College Students

Abstract

Since in college students are exposed to the variety of stressors that impact their psychological functioning, determining factors associated with psychological health of these individuals is an important research endeavour. The aim of the current research was to investigate the relationship between image of God with mental health in college students. To accomplish the stated goal 197 college students were selected by means of proportional sampling procedure. The Image of God Inventory (IOG, Lawrence, 1997) and Symptom Checklist90-R (SCL-90R, Deragotis et al., 1973) were administered on them. Analysis of data revealed that the magnitude of mental health can be predicted from the quality of images of God in college students. Moreover, data revealed that college students who had a positive image of God were higher in mental health than in college students who had a negative image of God. Authors concluded that positive image of God were associated with higher mental health in college students. Theoretical implication and practical application of the finding are discussed in the original paper.