Culture, socio-economic status and religious coping as predictors of happiness: a review

Abstract

Happiness importance cannot be overemphasized this has been confirmed by many researches and world happiness report 2012—2018. As a result, factors predicting happiness have been employed by researchers and scholars in various studies on Muslim women. Thus, this study examined and found out the factors predicting happiness such as culture, socio-economic status (SES) and religious coping as well as identified the foremost and majorpredictor and research design used by these scholars. A systematic review of the literature on culture, socio-economic status and religious coping as predictors of happiness among Muslim women was carried out. A total of number of 30 articles from different disciplines has been examined. The factors and research design found were divided in to those that belong to happiness predicted by culture, by socio-economic status, by religious coping and by culture, socio-economic status and religious coping, happiness related to culture, happiness related to culture, to socio-economic status, to religious coping and related to culture, socio-economic status and religious coping. The research designs were quantitative, qualitative, mixed method and systematic literature review (SLR). Quantitative research design was found to be the leading research design.The studies were also examined based on countries of study; Iran, Turkey, Palestine, Oman, Qatar, New Zealand, England, Bangladesh, Algeria, Jordan, Indonesia, Malaysia and Lebanon. Iran was the leading country. But no model of happiness was found in the studies analysed. It is hoped that findings from this study will be beneficial to Muslims in women centre for continuing education and counsellors especially in sub-Sahara Africa (Nigeria).