Resilience as a Mediator Between Religiosity and Psychological Well-Being Among Final-Year University Students in Indonesia

Final-year university students often face academic and psychosocial challenges that may undermine their psychological well-being. Religiosity is considered a cultural resource in Indonesia that may be associated with resilience and psychological well-being. However, previous findings regarding the role of resilience as a mediator remain inconsistent. This study aims to examine the mediating role of resilience in the relationship between religiosity and psychological well-being among final-year university students in Indonesia. This study employed a cross-sectional quantitative research design. The participants were final-year university students in their sixth semester or higher (N = 244). Data were collected using purposive sampling. The instruments used included the Four Basic Dimensions of Religiosity Scale (4BDRS), Ryff’s Psychological Well-Being Scale (RPWB), and the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC). The findings indicate that resilience statistically mediates the relationship between religiosity and psychological well-being, with a significant indirect association through resilience and a non-significant direct association after accounting for resilience. These findings suggest that resilience may represent an important mechanism underlying the association between religiosity and psychological well-being among final-year university students. This study contributes to the literature on positive psychology and the psychology of religion by expanding understanding of how resilience may account for the relationship between religiosity and psychological well-being. The findings may inform the development of university-based counselling approaches that consider religiosity and resilience as relevant psychological resources for supporting students in managing academic demands and career transitions. However, given the cross-sectional design, further longitudinal and intervention-based research is needed to examine whether strengthening religiosity or resilience can directly contribute to improvements in students’ psychological well-being.