How Religious Orientation Effects Anxiety? A Field Research on German Muslims-Turkish Immigrants

The purpose of this field study is to examine how the anxiety levels of the Muslim-Turkishimmigrants, dwelling in Germany are affected by their religious orientations and to describe the pattern of the relationship between them. The sample of the Muslim-Turkish immigrants, living in Germany is utilized for the design of this research. In addition, the differences in the religious orientaions and sub-dimensions of anxiety of the immigrants according to socio-demographic variables are statistically analyzed. For this purpose, the questionnaire form contains (a) Personal Inquiry Form, (b) Beck Anxiety Inventory and (c) Age-Universal Religious Orientation Scale. 134 subjects, 84 males and 50 females immigrants participated in the survey. The obtained quantitative data is analyzed by use of parametric statistical techniques in the aim of the research. According to the empirical findings, the basic hypothesis is tested which assumes that ‘there is a negative correlation between the intrinsic religious orientation and the anxiety levels of subjective anxiety as well as somatic symptoms; a positive one between the extrinsic religious orientation and the latters’. At the conclusion, quantitativefindings obtained from the survey are interpreted in the light of literature.