THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DREAM MOTIFS AND RELIGIOUS ATTITUDE IN ADOLESCENTS

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between high school students' dream motifs and religious attitudes according to some variables. Thus, in addition to testing the relationship between dreams and psychological symptoms, it will be revealed whether religious attitude has an effect on dream motifs. The study group consists of 316 students from different high schools in the city center of Corum. Data was collected via the Personal Information Form prepared by the researcher, Dream Motifs Scale (Yilmaz, 2018) and Religious Attitude Scale (Ok, 2011). In the study, the Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient of the Dream Motifs Scale was calculated as.78, and the Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient of the Religious Attitude Scale was.85. The data of the study was analyzed with SPSS 16.0 package program. Pearson Moments Correlation Analysis, t-test and one-way ANOVA were used to analyze the data. According to the findings of the study, the sample obtained a sub-average score from the overall of the dream motifs scale with all its sub-dimensions (Overall dream motifs scale: X=2.05, actual exception: X=1.79, blown self: X=2.23, satisfaction of evil: X=1.89 and dissatisfaction: X=2.29). Low scores give positive clues regarding the mental health of the sample. The total religious attitude level of the sample was calculated above the average (X=3.95). In the study carried out on high school students, the relationships between dream motifs and religious attitudes were examined especially in terms of revealing the subconscious. In this context, demographic variables, dream motifs and religious attitudes of the participants were researched. It is questioned whether the students' dream motifs and religious attitudes differ in terms of variables such as gender, class, intra-family communication, subjective happiness perception and academic achievement of the previous academic year. In the study, the following questions will be answered: 1. What are the high school students' dream motifs and religious attitudes? 2. Do high school students' dream motifs and religious attitudes differ significantly according to gender, class level, intra-family communication level, subjective happiness perception and academic achievement level in the previous academic year? 3. Is there a relationship between dream motifs and sub-dimensions and general religious attitude? The study group consists of 316 students from different high schools in Corum province. Data was collected via the Personal Information Form prepared by the researcher, Dream Motifs Scale and Religious Attitude Scale. The Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient of the 20-item Dream Motifs Scale adapted by Yilmaz (2018) was.78, and the Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient of the 8-item Religious Attitude Scale developed by Ok (2011) was calculated as .85. The data of the study was analyzed with SPSS 16.0 package program. In addition to descriptive statistics, independent samples t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Pearson Moments Correlation Analysis were used to determine differences between variables .05 significance level was taken as a criterion and LSD test was used to examine the source of significant differences between the groups. The results are presented in tables in the Findings section. According to the findings of the study, the sample obtained a sub-average score from the overall of the dream motifs scale with all its sub-dimensions (Overall dream motifs scale: X=2.05, actual exception: X=1.79, blown self: X=2.23, satisfaction of evil: X=1.89 and dissatisfaction: X=2.29). Low scores give positive clues regarding the mental health of the sample. In addition, the total religious attitude level of the sample was calculated above the average (X=3.95). The scores obtained from the cognitive (X=4.68) and relationship to God sub-dimensions (X=4.17) are higher than the scores obtained from the Feeling (X=3.31) and Behaviour (X=3.64) dimensions (see Table-2). According to the total religious attitude and cognitive and relationship sub-dimensions, the scores obtained from the feeling and behaviour sub-dimensions of the sample are lower. From these results, it is understood that young people have information about religion and have strong beliefs and affiliation with God. However, it can be deduced from the relatively low score of religiosity that religion does not have much place in the feeling world of young people and that the requirements and practices of the believed religion are not fulfilled sufficiently. It is also possible to summarize the results obtained in the research and the suggestions presented in this respect as follows: 49.4% of the students who participated in the research were girls and 50.6% were boys. 25.0% of the sample is in the 9th grade, 24.7% is in the 10th grade, 25.9% is in the 11th grade and 24.4% is in the 12th grade. It was found that 18.0% of the families were over protective, 73.7% were caring and affectionate, 4.7% were rigid and challenging and 3.5% were indifferent. The rate of those who have poor intra-family communication was 5.1%, normal was 28.8%, good was 33.9% and very good was 32.3%. 15.2% of the participants were in not happy group, 48.4% were in little happy and 36.4% were in happy group. The rate of students with low success was 6.0%, moderate was 19.3%, good was 31.3% and high was 43.4% according to the previous academic year. The scores obtained from the total dream motifs and sub-dimensions do not differ significantly according to the gender variable. The mean score of dream motifs is X=2.06 for girls, and X=2.04 for boys. On the other hand; it was found that total religious attitude scores differed statistically according to gender (p=.01, p<.05). The mean scores of boys (X=4.05) were higher than that of girls (X=3.85). In addition, boys had higher scores in feeling and behavior sub-dimensions than girls. In the cognitive (p=.07) and relationship to God (p=.43) sub-dimensions, religious attitude did not differ according to gender (p>.05) (see Table-3). There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of dream motifs scale and sub-dimensions according to class level variable (p>.05). A significant difference was found in the 10th grade level in total religious attitude scale (F=3.181; p=.024, p<.05) and feeling sub-dimension (F=4.350; p=.005, p<.05). In the other sub-dimensions, there was no significant difference between the groups (see Table-4). According to intra-family communication variable, the scores of the sample from the dream motifs and religious attitude scales differ significantly. For dream motifs scales, this differentiation was found among the groups in actual exception (F=6.79; p=.000, p<.05) and satisfaction of evil (F=4.16, p=.007, p<.05) sub-dimensions. There was a statistically significant difference between the groups (F=3.90; p=.009, p<.05) accroding to the scores obtained from Feeling sub-dimension (F=3.03; p=.030, p<.05) and Behaviour (F=7.35; p=.000, p<.05) sub-dimension as well as total Religious Attitude scale, (see Table-5). According to the subjective happiness variable, except for the sub-dimension of Dissatisfaction there were significant differences between the overall dimension of the dream motifs scale and the other sub-dimensions (F<2.88; p=.057, p>.05) (p<.05). Findings show that the sample is distanced from septic and irrational thoughts, narcissistic ideas and paranoid personality traits which is depicted with excessive fear and anxiety as the level of happiness increased. Significant differences were found between the groups in the total religious attitude scale and all sub-dimensions (p<.05). The group that defines itself as happy had the highest religious attitude score (X=4.08). While there was an inverse relationship between happiness level and dream motifs, it was seen that there was a positive relationship with religious attitude (see Table-6). There is no significant difference between the scores obtained from the dream motifs scale and its sub-dimensions according to the success level of the sample in the previous academic year. In the Feeling sub-dimension of religious attitude, the scores differed according to the achievement level (p<.05). However, the total scores of religious attitudes and the scores from the sub-dimensions of cognitive, behaviour and relationship to God were not statistically significant (p>.05). Accordingly, it can be reported that groups have similar religious attitudes according to success variable. In addition, the scores from the feeling dimension and the behavioral sub-dimension scores, though not statistically validated, indicated that as the achievement level of the students increased, their religious attitude scores decreased (see Table-7). The final finding of the study is about the relationship between dream motifs and religious attitude. Correlation analysis showed that correlation coefficient between dream motifs and religious attitude was r=-.022. The fact that the correlation coefficient is close to zero indicates that there is no significant relationship between the two variables (p>.05). The religious attitude level of the sample had no effect on the frequency of the individual's dream motifs. Namely; whether a person is religious or not has no significant effect on his or her having certain dreams frequently (see Table-8). This can be explained in many ways. However, in order to make more coherent interpretations, similar studies should be repeated with individuals in age groups in which religious attitudes have stabilized or in different stages of development. Thus, it will be possible to compare the findings. However, the study can be repeated on a sample with a psychiatric diagnosis and a sample without a psychiatric diagnosis based on dream motifs and thus comparisons can be made regarding the mental health of the participants. In addition, dependent variables such as life satisfaction and subjective well-being can be added and the relationship between these variables and dream motifs can be discussed in new studies. In this way, it is possible to achieve more comprehensive and generalizable results.