Psychological Well-Being, Social Support, and Self-efficacy: A Comparison of Nonresident Adolescents of Religious and Nonreligious Schools

This study was aimed to compare nonresident male adolescents from the religious and nonreligious schools on psychological well-being, social support, and self-efficacy. Sixty students from religious schools and 65 students from nonreligious schools with age range 16-19 years were selected through purposive sampling. Social Support Questionnaire (Sarason, Sarason, Sheerin, & Pierce, 1987), Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale (Schwarzer & Jerusalem, 1995), Subjective Happiness Scale (Lyubomirsky & Lepper, 1999), Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985), and Well-being Affectometer-2 Scale (Kammann & Flett, 1983) to assess study variables. Results indicated that the group from religious schools scored higher on satisfaction in life and on number of people providing support, but lower on self-efficacy as compared to group from nonreligious schools. Results further showed that social support had a significant main effect on all aspects of psychological well-being and self-efficacy, while, types of schools significantly affected only satisfaction with life and self-efficacy where religious schools were positive predictors of satisfaction with life, while, nonreligious schools were positive predictors of self-efficacy. Moreover, social support also had significant predictive association with life satisfaction. However, there was nonsignificant moderating impact of type of schools on relationship of social support with psychological well-being and self-efficacy.