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Abstract:
The significance of religiosity in well-being is rapidly gaining attention. Personal religiosity may provide a subjective utility to the individual and effect positively, but not associated with the well-being of the family. Higher religiosity would require time. The present study have examined the influence of personal religiosity and preaching-related absence of the household head on his family's economic well-being. The data was collected through a questionnaire from 385 Muslim families. The statistical techniques applied are; ordinary least square and Ordered Logistic regression models. The key findings suggest that religiosity and preaching-related absence have a strong impact on the family's economic well-being, however, the significance of preaching-related absence on family economic well-being is much stronger than personal religiosity. The results of the study will provide assistance in guiding the policy makers in enhancing the well-being of the people.
Key Words:
Religiosity, Economic Well-being, Preaching Related Absence, Ordinary Least Square, Ordered Logistic Regression
Introduction and Literature
Religion has an important place in the lives of many people. The World Happiness Report indicated religion as an important factor that can positively affect wellbeing (Helliwell, Layard & Sachs, 2012). According to the World Values Survey (Inglehart, 2000), 83% of the people interviewed believe in God, a larger part of the world population is affiliated with one or another religion. Thus, religion cannot be ruled out of the lives of the people, it is an important part of the culture and has a strong influence on every aspect of life including their well-being. Though, religion has consistently proven to have a significant impact on the wellbeing of people but the most significant impact may be seen in the form of their personal religiosity. Various social and economic determinants of well-being have been studied so far but among them, religiosity has gained the attention of the researchers of many disciplines like economics, sociology and psychology (George et al., 20002; 200; Deiner et al., 1999; Emmons et al., 1998; Levin et al., 1996; Ellison, 1995; Mickley et al., 1995). Religiosity and well-being have mostly reported to have a positive relationship (Diener et al., 2011; Abdel-Khalek, 2010; Noraini & Noor, 2008; Green & Yoon, 2004; Hackney & Sanders, 2003; Ellison & Levin, 1998). Highly religious people are reported to have a more optimistic approach towards their lives (Ramsay et al., 2019; Vishkin et al., 2019; 2016).
The impact of religiosity on wellbeing is examined in various dimensions. Personal religiosity significantly affects personal wellbeing and the wellbeing of others, but as like every good and service providing a utility (satisfaction) to the user (consumer) religiosity also costs something, and that is, time. The higher religiosity would require more time to be actively involved in the religious participation. A more religious individual would invest more of his time into religious activities in order to gain more mental satisfaction or subjective wellbeing from his religious actions. This allocation of time has no doubt a positive outcome in the form of enhanced subjective well-being for the individual who is involved. But it cannot be denied that being a part of society, one cannot live in isolation and consequently his acts are going to affect others as well. The incorporation of religion into one's life may results an impact on others' lives as well, though it may be positive or negative, subject to the conditions and circumstances. Thus, personal religiosity may considerably influence the wellbeing of other associated people.
To sum up, the personal religiosity may have an impact on personal wellbeing and in some cases on family wellbeing in the form of a child's development, moral values and family relationship, but its role in influencing family economic wellbeing is missing in the literature. Similarly, the research work on the impact of the absence of household head or father on the subjective wellbeing of the child and other family members is done, but the absence is taken in the form of migration, separation, and death. Thus, this study aims to fill a significant gap in research through analyzing the impact of personal religiosity and preaching-related absence of the household head on the family economic wellbeing. Fig. 1 below indicates the summary of the various dynamics regarding the literature on religiosity in economic dominion, while fig. 2 exhibits the literature on parental absence and wellbeing.
Research Question
? What is the impact of the personal religiosity of the individual on the economic well-being of his family members?
? How the preaching related absence from home may affect the economic wellbeing of the family?
Objectives
? To examine the influence of the personal religiosity of the household head on the economic well-being of the family.
? To estimate the influence of frequent preaching related absence of the household head from home on the economic wellbeing of the family.
? To examine the joint effect of religiosity and duration of absence from home on family wellbeing.
Model 1 Religiosity and Frequency of Absence on Wellbeing
Religiosity is measured using the basic religiosity model given by Glock and Stark in 1968 with certain modifications. They measured it through the five important dimensions. The dimension of practice comprises questions relating to actions set by religion such as prayer (Nimaz), reciting the Quran (Tilawat), performing nawafil and giving Zakat and charity. Questions related to economic wellbeing have covered the information regarding availability of material goods and facilities at the home including expenditure on health and education etc.
In order to analyze the impact of personal religiosity on family economic wellbeing, the regression equation is:
EWBf = ?0+ ?1rel + ?2frqabs + ?3Inc + ?4emply + ?5qual + ?6age +?i
?0 =Intercept
?s = Slope of the variable
EWBf = Economic Wellbeing of the family
rel = Personal religiosity of the household head
Arabs = frequency of preaching related absence from home
Inc = household income
emply= employment status of the household head
qual = maximum qualification of the household head
age = age of the household head
µi = Error term
Model 2 Interaction between Personal Religiosity and Frequency of Absence
The joint impact of religiosity and preaching related absence is examined to know if the interaction between them would add further insight in understanding the impact on family economic wellbeing. Therefore, an interaction term as (religiosity*frequency) in the regression model is introduced as:
EWBf= ?0+ ?1rel + ?2frqabs + ?3Inc + ?4emply + ?5qual + ?6age + +?7rel*frq+ ?i
Results and Discussion
Regressing for the economic well-being as
dependent variable, the estimated probabilities are shown in Table 2. It is very essential to mention here that, the sign of the coefficient from estimating the ordered logistic regression do not accurately determine the relationship path of the variables and may be misleading. Therefore, the predicted probabilities of the variables need to be computed for better understanding. Table 2 shows that, the probability of the family of being on lower economic well-being with a more religious household head is -0.37. Or in other words, the change in probability of being on higher economic wellbeing when the household head goes from "lower" to "higher" religiosity, decreases 37 percent, and is significant with P<0.049. For frequency of absence, it is to say that as the head of the family moves form lower to higher preaching related absence from home, the likelihood of the family on being higher economic wellbeing is -1.81. Similarly, as the household income increases from lower to higher, the probability of the family being on a higher EWB increases by 25%. The change in probability of higher family EWB, when the household head moves from lower qualification to a higher level, the probability of family EWB increases by 67%. It may be said that personal religiosity, frequency of absence, income and qualification of the household head have a significant impact on influencing his family EWB, however, the age and employment status are insignificant in the present model.
Table 2. Results of Ordered logit model (EWB)
| Variable width="81">dy/dx width="89">S.E width="78">z width="99">P>|z| | > Personal religiosity width="81">-.3762213 width="89">.19082 width="78">-1.97 width="99">0.049** | > Frequency of absence width="81">-1.815722 width="89">.83726 width="78">-2.17 width="99">0.030** | > Household income width="81">.2507219 width="89">.06981 width="78">3.59 width="99">0.000*** | > Employment status width="81">.0115389 width="89">.13863 width="78">0.08 width="99">0.934 | > Qualification width="81">.676501 width="89">.10764 width="78">6.28 width="99">0.000*** | > Age width="81">.0985997 width="89">.21086 width="78">0.47 width="99">0.640 |
Note: dy/dx is the discrete change from the base level
Table 3. Results of Ordered logit Model with Interaction Effect (EWB)
| Variable width="90">dy/dx width="72">S.E width="75">z width="96">P>|z| | > Personal religiosity width="90">-2944909 width="72">.1527 width="75">-1.93 width="96">0.054* | > Frequency of absence width="90">-.5099159 width="72">.20118 width="75">-2.53 width="96">0.011*** | > Monthly income width="90">.4896465 width="72">.12004 width="75">4.08 width="96">0.000*** | > Employment status width="90">.1783433 width="72">.10452 width="75">1.71 width="96">0.088* | > Qualification width="90">.2143843 width="72">.16234 width="75">1.32 width="96">0.187 | > Age width="90">.0793868 width="72">.10638 width="75">0.75 width="96">0.455 | > Religiosity*frequency of absence width="90">.189519 width="72">.06919 width="75">2.74 width="96">0.006*** |
