Role of Religiosity in Psychological Well-Being and Subjective Happiness among Transgender Considering Social Support as a Moderator

Abstract

Religiosity refers to people's tendencies to commit to religious beliefs and activities. Although abundant research has established a clear association between religion and psychological well-being, religion has both positive and negative implications depending on the way religion is used and inferred. However, inquiries into positive transgender development are specifically important, yet scarcely done, given the high rates of gender-based victimization and limited health resources. Moreover, transgender Muslims may encounter multiple forms of minority stress such as gender minority and ethnic minorities as well. Therefore, this research was designed to examine both bivariate and multivariate associations between Psychological Well-being, Subjective Happiness, and Social Support, and the possible positive role of religiosity for them. For this purpose, 100 transgender people were taken from different communities in Pakistan through snowball sampling. The Index of Religiosity (IR), Ryff's Scales of Psychological Well-being (RSPWB), Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), and Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS) were used to collect data. SPSS was used for data analysis. The mean age of participants was 27 years. The results revealed that Subjective Happiness and Psychological Well-being were correlated (p<.05) among transgender. Furthermore, it was found that those who have more religious practices, tend to have better Psychological Well-being however Social Support was not found to have any impact on the relationship. As for Subjective Happiness, Religiosity was also found to be a significant predictor along with a significant moderating role of Social Support. This indicated that Religious practices can be used as a significant means to promote and better the well-being of the transgender community.