[How are religiosity, psychological distress and integration interrelated? A comparative study of the religiosity in Turkish/Kurdish migrants in comparison to Germans].
OBJECTIVE
The current study aimed to assess the association between religious involvement, psychological distress and various aspects of integration in a population of Turkish/Kurdish migrants in primary care.


METHODS
We compared the group of Turkish/Kurdish migrants (n = 179, age m = 39.4 years, 65.0 % female) with German dermatological patients (n = 184, age m = 43.1 years, 60.9 % female) with regard to their religiosity.


RESULTS
On average the migrants lived in Germany for 24.98 years (SD = 8.90). Compared to the German patients, they showed higher religious involvement and participation. The migrants were highly significant more religious (p < 0.001) than the German patients. Contrary to expectation, no significant correlations between measures of religiosity and psychological distress were found for the Turkish migrant group. Further, inverse relationships between measures of religiosity and measures of integration resulted. Migrants who were more acculturated showed less religiosity.


CONCLUSIONS
The religious affiliation of the examined group was islamic. It remains open if the inverse association between religiosity and integration would be the same also for other religions.
Tagay
Sefik
S
Klinik für Psychosomatische Medizin und Psychotherapie, LVR-Klinikum Essen/Institut der Universität Duisburg-Essen, Germany. sefik.tagay@uni-due.de
Düllmann
Sonja
S
Brähler
Elmar
E
Stecker
Anja
A
Senf
Wolfgang
W
D000069:Acculturation; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001007:Anxiety / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology; D002835:Christianity; D003863:Depression / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants / Q000523:psychology*; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D007514:Islam; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019303:Multilingualism; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D012933:Social Identification; D014421:Turkey / Q000208:ethnology; D055815:Young Adult