The Role of Conception of God and Religious Identity in the Meaning of Life

The present research aims at providing a model for the meaning of life in the light of conception of God, taking into consideration religious commitment and discovery. The sample included 581 students from Azad Islamic and public universities of Birjand City who were chosen through multi-stage cluster sampling and completed the questionnaires on religious identity, conception of God and meaning of life. A structural equation modeling method was used to analyze the data. The research finding is that foreclosure and acquired religious identity intermediate the relationship between the conception of belonging and presence of meaning in life. Furthermore, the confused religious identity mediates between control dimension and the presence of meaning in life. The model shows that control dimension has a direct negative effect and the conception of belonging has direct positive effect on the search for the meaning, and dimension of kindness has only direct positive effect on the presence of meaning in life. The research finding also confirms that the bases of religious identity only predict the presence of meaning in life and kindness has no role in predicting the bases of individual's identity.