RELIGIOSITY, INCOME, AND ALMSGIVING INTEREST: AN ORDINAL LOGISTIC REGRESSION TEST OF THE THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOR

Abstract

Islamic philanthropy has experienced extraordinary growth across Muslim-majority nations, yet the joint influence of religiosity and income on voluntary almsgiving (sadaqah) intention among university students remains insufficiently understood, particularly outside the Java-centric base of prior Indonesian research. Grounded in the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), this study examined the effects of religiosity and income on almsgiving interest among Islamic Economics students at a regional East Kalimantan university. A quantitative design applied ordinal logistic regression to data collected through a structured questionnaire administered over a six-week period (February–March 2026) to 81 purposively selected respondents drawn from a population of 389 active students across cohorts 2020–2024. Instrument validity and reliability were confirmed through Pearson product-moment correlation and Cronbach's alpha. The final model showed an adequate improvement in fit over the intercept-only baseline (χ²(4) = 41.061, p < .001; Nagelkerke R² = .449). Religiosity significantly predicted almsgiving interest at the low-versus-high contrast (p < .001) but not at the moderate-versus-high contrast (p = .169), indicating partial support for H1. Income significantly predicted almsgiving interest at both the low (p < .001) and moderate (p = .046) contrasts, indicating full support for H2. These findings suggest that spiritual commitment and financial capacity jointly, though not uniformly across categories, shape philanthropic intention among Muslim students. The study extends TPB to a regional Indonesian context underrepresented in prior literature and offers targeted implications for zakat management bodies and Islamic educational institutions seeking to cultivate a giving culture among Muslim youth.