Abstract
This study examined the association between the degree of religiosity, combined with cultural beliefs, social stigmas, and attitudes towards mental-health treatment in two groups, who, despite having similar cultural and religious affiliation, have experienced different socio-political contexts: Palestinian Muslim college students living in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and Israel. The study was guided by Tanhan and Young’s (2021) conceptual framework. Methods: A snowball recruitment strategy was applied, using a cross-sectional survey. A total sample size was 214 students, 105 from the OPT and 109 from Israel. Results indicate that students from the OPT (
n
= 105) did not differ from those living in Israel (
n
= 109) on religiosity using the Islamic Belief scale, or Attitudes Towards Mental Health treatment (
F
(1, 189) = 1.07,
p
= 0.30). However, students from the OPT had higher confidence in mental-health professionals (
M
= 15.33) than their counterparts (
M
= 14.59), and women had higher confidence (
M
= 16.03) than men (
M
= 13.90). The reliance on traditions for Muslim students over Western mental-health approaches is a critical factor in predicting the attitudes towards students’ mental problems and their chosen treatment. Sociopolitical context played a significant role in shaping attitudes toward mental-health providers.