Arab American Women’s Ethnic Identity and Religiosity: Their Relationship to Perceived Discrimination and Psychological Wellbeing

Abstract

Following the recent events around the world, there has been a heightened sense of hostility towards the Muslim community. Now, more than ever it seems, there has been tension caused by unfortunate acts of racial, ethnic, and religious intolerance. The purpose of this study is to analyze the relation of perceived ethnic and religious discrimination to well-being. It was hypothesized that individuals who have been discriminated against will have a lower level of psychological well-being, those with higher ethnic identity will have higher level of psychological well-being, and those with higher religiosity will have higher level of psychological well-being. Results showed that while there were no significant correlations found for any of the relationships in the hypothesis, there were significant correlations for other variables in this study.