Discrimination, life stress, and mental health among Muslims: A preregistered systematic review and meta-analysis

Research suggests that experiences of discrimination and life stressors are associated with negative mental-health outcomes for Muslim populations in western countries. The current study reports on two meta-analyses based on 295 correlations from 130 unique samples and 27,725 individuals, examining the associations of discrimination and life stressors, both separately and jointly, with mental health. Discrimination was significantly associated with negative mental-health outcomes (rs = .22–.23). Between-study variability in effects sizes was explained by discrimination level, mental-health outcome, number of discrimination measure items, and refugee status. Life stressors were also significantly associated with negative mental-health outcomes (rs = .32–.37). Between-study variability in effect sizes was explained by publication bias, sample population, number of life stressor measure items, continent, and ethnicity. Both omnibus effect-size estimates were robust to tests of publication bias, outliers, and within-study dependence. Results suggest unique associations between both discrimination and life stressors with mental health. In the current sociopolitical climate, this study is an important step to better serve the mental health needs of the growing global Muslim community.