Abstract

It is documented that in the households’ experience of vulnerability to poverty, religious and psychological factors have been inextricably but indirectly linked. These factors, according to researchers’ findings, have played a decisive role in enhancing households’ coping capacity in an attempt to ease their vulnerabilities. The same factors however could also have adverse effects on household in their vulnerability to poverty as they may weaken people’s risk-management and coping strategies. This study will attempt to extend the discussion of this issue by an investigation of psychological and religious impact on households’ risk management and coping strategies. In order to understand the dynamics of interrelations between these factors, a study was done in the states of Kelantan and Terengganu in Malaysia. Using a structured socio-economic questionnaire, 302 randomly selected farmers from both the states were tested. The results showed that distress, depression and feeling discouraged dramatically reducing farmers’ monthly income. Also the results indicated that the more the religious farmers are the highest their monthly income is. Instead of being motivated when experiencing stressors, farmers behaved negatively. This was confirmed as the results appointed the existence of a significant and negative relationship between farmers’ psychological situation and their coping strategies. At the same time religious farmers implemented only fewer strategies. But these strategies found to be effective and efficient as their monthly income is higher compared to those who seldom practice religious commitments.

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