Academic Pressure, Religious Coping, and Irritability in Adolescents

Abstract

Adolescents in Pakistan face intense academic pressures that heighten their vulnerability to emotional dysregulation, including irritability. The present study examined the relationships among academic pressure, religious coping, and irritability, with a particular focus on the mediating role of religious coping in the academic pressure–irritability pathway. A cross-sectional quantitative correlational design was employed with a balanced community sample of 300 adolescents (150 males, 150 females) aged 13–19 years, enrolled in secondary, higher-secondary, and first-semester undergraduate institutions in Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan, recruited through convenience sampling. Academic pressure was assessed using the Academic Stress Scale, religious coping was measured using the Religious Coping Activities Checklist (Pargament et al., 2000), and irritability was assessed using the Affective Reactivity Index (Stringaris et al., 2012). Results revealed that academic pressure was significantly positively correlated with irritability and religious coping, while religious coping was significantly negatively correlated with irritability. Mediation analysis using the PROCESS Macro (Hayes, 2018, Model 4) confirmed that religious coping significantly mediated the relationship between academic pressure and irritability, with the opposite signs of the direct and indirect effects revealing a suppression pattern: academic pressure directly elevated irritability while simultaneously activating religious coping, which in turn attenuated irritability. Significant gender differences were observed across study variables. The findings underscore the importance of integrating culturally sensitive, religiously informed coping resources into school-based mental health programs for Pakistani adolescents.