Relationship between Spirituality and Social Support towards Depression among Student Smokers in Malaysian Public Higher Education Institutions

Youths represent the hope of the country that will hold the helm of the country's leadership in future.However, they are not immune to the influence of unhealthy behaviors, particularly smoking.Many young adults, especially university students, are driven to engage in smoking behavior for various factors, including academic and social pressures.However, studies examining the depression of university students in Malaysia who smoke remain limited.This study aims to identify depression, spiritual resilience, and social support of students who smoke in university and to investigate the relationship between spirituality and social support to the level of depression.A total of 351 Muslim students at a public university in Malaysia who smoke participated in this study.The study sample was selected using snowball sampling method.Descriptive findings revealed that the depression levels of university students who smoke is mild.An analisis of Pearson correlation indicated a significant relationship between social support and depression but no significant corellation between spiritual resilience and depression.Additionally, a T-test analysis showed a significant difference in the depression of social smokers and heavy smokers, such that social smokers have a higher mean value than heavy smokers.It was suggested that future studies should broaden the scope to include the spirituality of student smokers from diverse religious backgrounds rather than focusing solely on Islam.