Is Urban Fathers’ Religion Important for Their Children’s Behavior?

Previous research suggests that many men increase their religious involvement after the birth of a new child. Using data on low-income urban fathers from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCW), this study extends this research by examining whether fathers maintain a higher rate of religious participation as children get older and how fathers’ religiosity may influence children’s behavior. Results suggest that although many urban fathers slightly increase their religious involvement after the birth of a child, most fathers attend religious services at a fairly consistent rate during the early years of their child’s life. Although there is only limited evidence suggesting that fathers’ religious involvement directly influences children’s behavior, there is evidence that fathers’ religiosity moderates the influence of other family characteristics on children; parental relationship quality and mothers’ religiosity are associated with fewer problem behaviors among children when fathers believe that religion is important to family life. Results also suggest that having a Black Protestant father is associated with fewer externalizing problem behaviors among young children. Overall, this study suggests that religion may be a source of support that encourages urban fathers to be engaged in their family life and promote positive development among children.     

Parental Divorce and Adult Religiosity: Evidence from the General Social Survey

This study explores the relationship between parental divorce and religiosity, including religious affiliation change and church attendance. Data from the 1991, 1998, and 2008 waves of the General Social Survey provide information both on current religiosity and religiosity in respondents’ families of origin. The results suggest that living with a single divorced parent—but not a remarried or widowed parent—increases church attendance and the odds of a change in religious affiliation. Catholics and Protestants from divorced families are disproportionately likely to become apostates as adults, while people growing up in unaffiliated divorced families more often become affiliated as adults. However, parental divorce has fewer effects on the likelihood of moving from one denomination to another.     

Religiosity and Spirituality: Influence on Quality of Life and Perceived Patient Self-Efficacy among Cardiac Patients and Their Spouses

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of spirituality, religiosity, and religious coping on quality of life and self-efficacy among couples following a first time cardiac event. There was no significant association between measures for spirituality and religiosity and couples’ ratings for quality of life and self-efficacy. Negative forms of religious coping were associated with lower levels of quality of life and decreased confidence in the patient’s ability to perform physical tasks. Spouses’ measures for quality of life, self-efficacy, spirituality, religiosity, and religious coping were associated with patients’ measures for the same study variables. Joan F. Miller, RN, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Nursing, Bloomsburg University, Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania 17815 and Director of the Bloomsburg University Nursing Wellness Center. The author gives special thanks to Timothy R. McConnell, Ph.D., and Troy A. Klinger, M.S., for their research support and helpful feedback.     

Acclimating International Graduate Students to Professional Engineering Ethics

This article describes the education portion of an ongoing grant-sponsored education and research project designed to help graduate students in all engineering disciplines learn about the basic ethical principles, rules, and obligations associated with engineering practice in the United States. While the curriculum developed for this project is used for both domestic and international students, the educational materials were designed to be sensitive to the specific needs of international graduate students. In recent years, engineering programs in the United States have sought to develop a larger role for professional ethics education in the curriculum. Accreditation requirements, as well as pressures from the private sector, have helped facilitate this shift in focus. Almost half of all engineering graduate students in the U.S. are international students. Further, research indicates that the majority of these students will remain in the U.S. to work post-graduation. It is therefore in the interest of the profession that these students, coming from diverse backgrounds, receive some formal exposure to the professional and ethical expectations and norms of the engineering profession in the United States to help ensure that they have the knowledge and skills—non-technical as well as technical—required in today’s engineering profession. In becoming acculturated to professional norms in a host country, international students face challenges that domestic students do not encounter; such as cultural competency, language proficiency, and acculturation stress. Mitigating these challenges must be a consideration in the development of any effective education materials. The present article discusses the project rationale and describes the development of on-line instructional materials aimed at helping international engineering graduate students acclimate to professional engineering ethics standards in the United States. Finally, a brief data summary of students’ perceptions of the usefulness of the content and instructional interface is provided to demonstrate the initial effectiveness of the materials and to present a case for project sustainability.     

All quiet on the postmodern front?

This paper explores the question of the purpose of education within the context of Lyotardȁ9s framing of the postmodern condition. It points to some of the continuities and discontinuities in the framing of the current condition as postmodern and the recurrent problematics of truth-telling which is the mark of this condition. It suggests that educationally the postmodern condition is marked by lifelong learning, a constant apprenticeship rather than mastery, where in language stutters.     

Constructing Profiles of Religious Agreement and Disagreement Between Adolescents and Mothers: A Research Note

This research note describes the use of latent class analysis to examine how three dimensions of religiosity—the importance of religion (religious salience), attendance at religious services, and frequency of prayer—cluster together to form unique profiles. Building upon recent research identifying different profiles of religiosity at the level of the individual, we used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to identify dyadic profiles of religious concordance or discordance between 14,202 adolescents and their mothers. We identified five profiles: one concordant (27% of sample), two discordant (25% of sample), and two of mixed concordance/discordance (49%). The profiles distinguish between various levels of adolescent/mother relations, suggesting that they may represent distinct family dynamics. They also distinguish between several variables (race, adolescent age, geographical region) in predictable ways, providing additional demonstration of the categories’ meaningfulness.     

I'm a Jesus girl: coping stories of Black American women diagnosed with breast cancer

Breast cancer continues to be the most diagnosed cancer for all women, excluding non-melanoma skin cancer, in the United States. Incidence rates are 1 in 8 for an American woman being diagnosed. Moreover, statistics indicate that every 13 min an American woman dies from complications related to breast cancer. Despite all the gains made in the area of cancer research, Black American women continue to have a 67% higher mortality rate than their White counterparts. There is no preparation for a diagnosis of breast cancer. Upon hearing the words: you have breast cancer, a woman’s life is forever altered. The woman’s initial reactions of denial and/or anger yield to strategic responses. These responses may strengthen the woman’s resiliency both during and following treatments. Research indicates that Black Americans, specifically Black American women, exhibit greater religiosity/spirituality than do other racial/ethnic groups. In addition, the use of religiosity/spirituality by Black Americans increases during a crisis. This qualitative study examines how religiosity/spirituality was utilized as a coping mechanism by a group of Black American women following their diagnoses of breast cancer.     

Subsidizing Religious Participation Through Groups: A Model of the “Megachurch” Strategy for Growth

Either despite or because of their non-traditional approach, megachurches have grown significantly in the United States since 1980. This paper models religious participation as an imperfect public good which, absent intervention, yields suboptimal participation by members from the church’s perspective. Megachurches address this problem in part by employing secular-based group activities to subsidize religious participation that then translates into an increase in the attendees’ religious investment. This strategy not only allows megachurches to attract and retain new members when many traditional churches are losing members but also results in higher levels of an individual’s religious capital. As a result, the megachurch may raise expectations of members’ levels of commitment and faith practices. Data from the FACT2000 survey provide evidence that megachurches employ groups more extensively than other churches, and this approach is consistent with a strategy to use groups to help subsidize individuals’ religious investment. Religious capital rises among members of megachurches relative to members of non-megachurches as a result of this strategy.     

The global community, religion, and education: the modernity of Dewey’s social philosophy

As a starting point this paper takes Dewey’s nowadays often stressed modernity and examines his social philosophy against the background of the current debates on republicanism and communitarianism. Particularly, the anaysis of Dewey’sThe Public and its Problem (1927) concludes that the attention being paid to Dewey is problematic as specific religious assumptions — explicitly developed inA Common Faith (1934) -lie in the background of his social philosophy, and are hardly being recognized. However, as it shall be shown, without considering the religious basis, neither Dewey’s social philosophy nor his educational theory can be properly understood.     

Displacement or composition? Lyotard and Nancy on the <Emphasis Type="Italic">trait d’union</Emphasis> between Judaism and Christianity

In one of the essays in his recent book on Christianity, La déclosion (2005), Nancy discusses the relationship between Judaism and Christianity. Nancy opens this discussion with a reference to Lyotard’s book on this relationship: Un trait d’union (1993). Both Lyotard and Nancy examine a very early figure in the emergence of Christianity from Judaism—whereas Lyotard focuses on the epistles of Paul, Nancy reads the epistle of James. Lyotard concludes that the hyphen in the expression ‘Judeo-Christian’ actually conceals ‘the most impenetrable abyss within Western thought’. With this abyss, Lyotard refers to the point of departure of Judaism: the event in which a Voice has left behind letters, inaugurating an interminable work of interpretation. For Nancy, however, it is rather Christianity, and therefore, Western culture, which is deconstructive in nature. Its composition is co-original with a decomposition, and therefore, with an openness. In James, Nancy finds an emphasis on praxis, in such a way that existence is to be understood as transcendent within itself. With this reading of James, Nancy seems to deny that there is a fundamental difference between Judaism and Christianity. In order to clarify the differences between Lyotard and Nancy, it is shown that, in Lyotard’s view, an unsublatable alterity comes with aisthèsis, whereas in Nancy’s view, alterity comes with existence as such.     

Does Education Influence Ethical Decisions? An International Study

This study examined whether having attended a public, private or religious affiliated grade and/or high school influenced a college student’s ethical decision making process. We also examined whether having taken an ethics course in college influences a student’s ethical decision making process. Our sample included 508 accounting students (237 men and 271 women) from Albania, Ecuador, Ireland and the United States. Our analyses indicated no differences in ethical decision making that associated with either grade-or-high-school education. While our data showed no difference in the reported attitudes between students from Ecuador and the United States after controlling for social desirability response bias, we found significant differences between the attitudes students from the United States and students from both Albania and Ireland. While gender was also significant for six of our seven scenarios, social desirability response bias was significant in all of our scenarios.     

Religious Tradition,Religiosity, or Everyday Theologies? Unpacking Religion’s Relationship to Support for Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage Among a College Student Sample

This study explores the differential impact of religious tradition, religiosity, and everyday theologies on support for legalizing same-sex marriage among a sample of undergraduate college students. The findings suggest that among college students in the United States the group of everyday theologies—personal religious beliefs that emerge through individuals’ lived experiences and social interactions—that we examine has a larger influence on attitudes about legalizing same-sex marriage than do either religious tradition or religiosity (measured as attendance, prayer, and guidance). We operationalize the concept of everyday theologies as levels of endorsement for six different religious themes. Implications for social movements promoting same-sex marriage and future research are discussed.     

Defensive dining: notes on the public dining experiences in Singapore

This paper examines the relationship between an individual’s degree of religiosity (or piety) and his/her participation in everyday life in a secular, cosmopolitan and multicultural society such as Singapore, by focusing on the practice of public dining. Given that Islam has dietary restrictions (‘halal’), this paper hypothesizes that a devout Muslim might be placed in a situation of considerable unease when dining publicly, as the external environment may conflict with these restrictions. The research for this paper involved interviews with 20 Singaporean Muslims, who have described themselves as being ‘devout’ and ‘practicing’, asking about their views on dining at public food courts or hawker centers. It finds that rather than choosing to avoid these situations, they engaged in a series of defensive strategies to accommodate their religious obligations as well as intercultural interactions, to a certain degree. This paper concludes that because deeply religious Muslims in Singapore implement ‘defensive dining,’ concerns about self-exclusion, isolationism and separatism are probably unfounded, as these individuals appear willing to participate in multicultural and cosmopolitan everyday life.     

Religiosity and Financial Crises in the United States

The farm crisis in the United States in the 1980s had profound effects on rural, agricultural regions of the country, but almost no impact on urban and suburban areas. At the same time, the 2007–2008 housing crisis impacted almost all metropolitan areas, but was much more deeply felt in certain states, such as California, Arizona, Nevada, and Florida. I use a difference‐in‐differences methodology and find that religiosity as measured by religious attendance, prayer frequency, and religious intensity increased significantly in areas impacted by the farm crisis for those who worked in agriculture, and by the housing crisis for those who worked in housing‐related industries. Chen describes increased religiosity in Indonesia following the 1998 financial crisis, and this article demonstrates a similar response to severe financial distress in the United States. This increase is not due to a lower opportunity cost of time, as those who are currently employed have higher levels of attendance than those who are not. I hypothesize that the increased religiosity results from religious institutions’ ability to provide public goods, both financial and emotional, in the form of community support.     

The Journeys of Generation Y Missionaries from the United Kingdom: A Modification of Lewis Rambo’s ‘Stages of Religious Change’ Model

The metaphorical journeys of GenY missionaries from the United Kingdom towards commitment to long-term, cross-cultural missionary work overseas were studied using data collected by interview and questionnaire. Lewis Rambo’s ‘stages of religious change’ model describes many aspects of these journeys. The addition of two new dimensions—recognising events that deflect a person from a straight-line trajectory (‘deflection’) and events that provide the encouragement to go on (‘support’)—produces a model that describes these journeys more accurately. The model is further improved by adding new aspects to the ‘quest,’ ‘commitment’ and ‘consequences’ dimensions, and by the identification of differences between men and women. The modified model provides a comprehensive framework for understanding the journey of GenY-ers toward a missionary career.     

Sex Differences in Religiosity: The Role of Attachment to Parents and Social Learning

We employed aspects of both attachment theory and social learning theory to develop an understanding of sex differences in young adults’ attachment to God, their concepts of God, and other aspects of their religiosity. We found that attachment to God is more likely to be associated with attachment to the same-sex parent than to the opposite-sex parent. We found that this is also true for concepts of God as loving, controlling, and distant in female, but not male participants in our study. For both males and females, mother’s level of religious involvement when they were growing up was associated with participants’ later attendance at religious services, but for males, attachment to father was an additional influence. In neither males nor females was attachment to either parent or their parent’s past religious involvement a significant predictor of strength of religious faith.     

Religiosity and Tolerance in the United States and Poland

Survey research shows important links between religion and tolerance in the United States. Yet it is not known to what extent its findings have broader, cross-national relevance. This article compares religious influences on political tolerance in the United States and Poland. Despite the marked political and cultural differences between their national contexts, data from the NORC GSS and Polish GSS reveal similar patterns of religious influences. Both in the United States and Poland, intolerance appears to be linked primarily to theocratic beliefs, that is, to a political correlate of religiosity rather than to its essential components, such as religious commitment and participation that have weak direct effects only on tolerance of atheists, and weak indirect effects on other dimensions of tolerance.     

Preferences for Life-Prolonging Medical Treatments and Deference to the Will of God

We defined and measured a dimension of religiosity frequently invoked in end-of-life (EOL) research—deference to God’s Will (GW)—and examined its relationship to preferences for life-prolonging treatments. In a 35-min telephone interview, 304 older men and women (60 +) were administered the 5-item GW scale, sociodemographic questions, three attitude items regarding length of life, and measures of two health indices, depression, and life-prolonging treatment preferences. The GW scale demonstrated internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = .94) and predictive and discriminant validity. Higher scores indicative of greater deference to GW were associated with stronger life-prolonging treatment preferences in poor-prognosis scenarios. Implications for the role of religiosity in medical decision-making are discussed.     

Lyotard’s performance

Starting with Lyotard’s characterisation of postmodernity as incredulity, this is related to another of his key concepts—that of ‘performativity’. Lyotard appears to deploy performativity to characterise those technologies that bring about the optimisation of efficient performance. However, there is another sense of performativity where it is linked to performance. Performance conditions the possibility of any and all performatives, or to put it another way, as performance is itself enabled by performativity, so too performativity is realised through its performance. Both senses of performativity and the linkage between them are clearly manifested in the space of knowledge production that is the contemporary university. This linkage is itself a feature of the semiotic process within which contemporary knowledge and knowledge production is located and which Lyotard himself recognised, albeit implicitly. The implication of this therefore is that Lyotard himself performs his text and in so doing both manifests and contributes to realising both senses of performativity.