Perceived Discrimination, Social Connectedness, Religious Coping, and Perceived Climate on Traumatic Stress for Muslim International Students
Date
2021Metadata
[+] Show full item recordAbstract
Posttraumatic stress symptoms have been consistently found to be elevated among people of color due to experiences of discrimination. Current literature on posttraumatic stress symptoms has mainly focused on race and ethnicity. It is possible that Muslim international students, who hold racial/ethnic and religious minority identities, experience posttraumatic stress symptoms due to perceived discrimination and a negative social climate (i.e., racist and Islamophobic). Additionally, researchers have examined the role of social connectedness and religious coping in mitigating negative health outcomes among minority groups. The purpose of this study was to examine the lived experience of Muslim international students in the United States during a social and political shift of increased Islamophobia and anti-immigration policies. In this study of 133 Muslim international students, I hypothesized that social connectedness (i.e., mainstream and Muslim communities) and religious coping would moderate the positive relationship between perceived discrimination and posttraumatic stress symptoms. The results indicated that perceived discrimination predicted posttraumatic stress symptoms above and beyond perceived general stress; however, the present results did not support the roles of mainstream or Muslim social connectedness or religious coping as moderators between perceived discrimination and posttraumatic stress symptoms. However, mainstream social connectedness was significantly associated with fewer posttraumatic stress symptoms.
Table of Contents
Introduction and review of literature -- Manuscript -- Appendix A. Demographic Questionnaire -- Appendix B. Perceived Stress Scale 4 -- Appendix C. Religious Coping: Islamic Positive Religious Coping Subscale of the Psychological Measure of Islamic Religiousness -- Appendix D. Perceived Discrimination (PD) subscale of the Acculturative Stress Scale the for International Students -- Appendix E.Social Connectedness in Mainstream Society (SCMN) and Social Connectedness in the Ethnic Community (SCETH) Scales -- Appendix F. The Post-Traumatic Checklist – 6-item Specific Version -- Appendix G. Perceived Climate Scale -- Appendix H. Descriptive Statistics for Demographic Items -- Appendix I. Participants State of Residence -- Appendix J. Responses by Major -- Appendix K. Factor Loadings Based on Principal Axis Factoring Analysis with Varimax for Perceived General Climate scale
Degree
Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy)