Causal Model of the Relationship between Causal Attribution, Superstitious Thinking, and Quality of Life for University Students

(Mostafa A. Elhodiuby and Nahla A. Abd El Majeed)

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Abstract

Superstitious thinking had negative effects on societies. This study aimed to investigate the university students' differences of superstitious thinking levels (low, medium, or high) for both causal attributions and life quality for with its three levels in addition to detect the differences due to gender, specialization , place of living and class of study. The work also aims to verify the validity of the proposed statistical model of causal attributions, supersti􀀐 tious thinking, and life quality of university students so that the model better determines direct and indirect effects between the superstitious thinking and those variables based on what the study data reflect. The sample of the pilot study included 189 students whereas the main study sample included 715 students enrolled in the college of Education, Assiut University. The study tools were Superstitious Thinking Scale (STS), Causal Attributions Scale (CAS), and Quality of Life Scale (QOLS) for university students. Results showed a statistically significant difference between the means of the three level scores of STS on both CAS and QOLS and their dimensions for university students in favor of students with high-level superstitious thinking. Results also revealed statistically significant differences in STS and its dimensions due to some demo􀀐 graphic variables including specialization and class of study in favor of students in literary-study sections and first year students. On the other hand, there were no differences in STS due to gender and neighborhood. Additionally, path analysis asserted the proposed model validity. Finally, through mediation analysis of the constructive equation model, it was concluded that causal attributions is a mediator variable between superstitious thinking and quality of life for university students. Key Words: Causal attributions, Positive psychology, Superstitious thoughts.
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