Job Insecurity and Happiness Among Muslim Americans: Does the Moderating Role of Religious Involvement Differ by Gender?

A substantial body of literature has examined the factors predicting happiness among various groups; however, few studies have systematically focused on happiness and related factors among Muslim Americans. Within the framework of the stress-process paradigm, this current study addresses fundamental arguments regarding job insecurity as a key predictor of happiness and the role of religious involvement as a buffering factor against the deleterious effects of job insecurity as a structural stressor. Thus, our work contributes to the literature by examining the potential relationships between religious covariates and job insecurity with happiness. Using data from the 2007 Pew Survey of Muslim Americans, we test the study hypotheses accordingly. Findings from the binary logistic regression models demonstrate that (a) job insecurity is a negative predictor of happiness for both males and females; (b) religious involvement is positively associated with happiness for both males and females; and remarkably (c) religious involvement buffers the adverse effects of job insecurity on happiness for females, not males. We discuss the study findings and address implications, limitations, and future research avenues.