Religious Orientation and Family Mental Health: A Case Study on Families in Shiraz

The main purpose of this paper is to study the relationship between religious orientation and mental health of families living in Shiraz. The research has followed a quantitative survey method using questionnaires. The population includes families living in Shiraz in 1999، in which the wife and husband were living together. 386 families were selected based on systematic stratified random sampling. The result showed a significant correlation between such variables as age، gender، income، education، internal religious orientation، and external religious orientation and family mental health. The results of the multiple-variable regression equation showed that، among all of the variables under study the variables of internal religious orientation، income، external religious orientation، and education explain about 66 percent of the changes in the dependent variable. According to the path analysis model، among these variables، internal religious orientation had the highest impact on the dependent variable.