Past research indicates that psychological well-being is positively influenced by protective factors including religiosity, identity achievement, and identity affirmation. However, studies applying...Show morePast research indicates that psychological well-being is positively influenced by protective factors including religiosity, identity achievement, and identity affirmation. However, studies applying this model to SMI populations and investigating the interaction of protective factors listed above are yet scarce. This study, following a strengths-based approach, was focused on intrinsic religiosity and psychological well-being in SMI individuals and investigated whether the relationship between the two was mediated by identity achievement and identity affirmation while having gender as a covariate. An online survey was conducted where the participants were sexual minority adults (N = 241). The hypothesis was investigated using the fourth model of Hayes Mediation and Moderation Analysis Models. Additionally, Spearman’s correlation coefficients were calculated for each variable. The model yielded insignificant results for both identity achievement (b (SE) = .- 05 (.09), 95% CI: [-.26, .12]) and identity affirmation (b (SE): .03 (.18), 95% CI: [-.40, .34]) as mediators. The total effect of intrinsic religiosity on psychological well-being was also insignificant with b (SE) = -.57 (.57), t = -1.01, p = .31, 95% CI: [-1.69, .55]. The results of the study indicated that the proposed mediation model was insignificant and that the effect of intrinsic religiosity on psychological wellbeing is not mediated by identity achievement or affirmation. Future studies investigating this relationship should aim to obtain a sample with more variance in intrinsic religiosity. It is also recommended to integrate other protective factors into this model such as parental acceptance to explore the interactions in depth.Show less
