Parental Divorce,Parental Religious Characteristics,and Religious Outcomes in Adulthood

Parental divorce has been linked to religious outcomes in adulthood. Previous research, however, has not adequately accounted for parental religious characteristics, which may render the association spurious and/or moderate the relationship. Many studies also do not consider subsequent family context, namely, whether one's custodial parent remarries. Using pooled data from three waves of the General Social Survey, we examine the nature of the relationships among parental divorce, subsequent family structure, and religiosity in adulthood. Growing up in a single‐parent family—but not a stepparent family—is positively associated with religious disaffiliation and religious switching and negatively associated with regular religious service attendance. Accounting for parental religious characteristics, however, explains sizable proportions of these relationships. In fact, after accounting for parental religious affiliation and service attendance, growing up with a single parent does not have a significant effect on religious service attendance. Parental religiosity also moderates the relationship between growing up with a single parent and religious service attendance: being raised in a single‐parent home does have a negative effect on religious service attendance among adults who had two religiously involved parents. There is modest evidence of this moderating relationship for other religious outcomes. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Countervailing Forces: Religiosity and Paranormal Belief in Italy

Due to the unique cultural niche inhabited by “paranormal” beliefs and experiences, social scientists have struggled to understand the relationship between religion and the paranormal. Complicating matters is the fact that extant research has primarily focused upon North America, leaving open the possible relationship between these two spheres of the supernatural in less religiously pluralistic contexts. Using data from a random, national survey of Italian citizens, we examine the nature of the relationship between religiosity and paranormal beliefs in a largely Catholic context. We find a curvilinear relationship between religiosity and paranormal beliefs among Italians, with those at the lowest and highest levels of religious participation holding lower average levels of “paranormal” belief than those with moderate religious participation. This pattern reflects how two influential social institutions, religion and science, simultaneously define the paranormal as outside of acceptable realms of inquiry and belief.     

Religious Pathways from Adolescence to Adulthood

Prior research suggests the significance of religion for development and well‐being in adolescence and beyond. Further, new developments and applications of statistical methods have led to ways of better accounting for the multidimensional nature of religiosity (e.g., latent class analysis), as well as the dynamic aspects of religiosity (e.g., latent growth curve models). Yet, rarely, if ever, are both features of religiosity incorporated and examined together. Therefore, we propose and conduct a latent class analysis using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) to identify seven distinct pathways of religiosity that involve independently changing levels of religious affiliation, religious service attendance, personal importance of religion, and prayer from adolescence to adulthood. We also show how individuals’ religious pathways are related to gender, race, parents’ education, their own education, and family formation experiences in the transition to adulthood. Our findings inform the study of how multiple dimensions of religiosity take shape across adolescence and the transition to adulthood, and suggest a new way for measuring the dynamics of religiosity in studies of the impact of religion across the life course.     

Lack of a Secularizing Influence of Education on Religious Activity and Parity Among Mormons

Research conducted in the early 1980s indicated that education does not have a secularizing influence on Mormons. Based on data from two cross–sectional surveys involving Utah residents in 1996 and 2000, we provide an updated assessment of the association between education and religiosity in Mormons and also consider this association in non–Mormons. We also evaluate the association between educational attainment and parity (i.e., number of children born to a woman) according to religious preference and religious activity. Consistent with previous research, we did not find education to have a secularizing influence on Mormons, but rather to have a positive association with religiosity for both Mormon men and women. Little or no association was observed in non–Mormons. Mean parity tended to decrease with higher education for both Mormons and non–Mormons. However, within categories of age and education, mean parity was considerably higher among religiously active Mormon women.     

None Too Simple: Examining Issues of Religious Nonbelief and Nonbelonging in the United States

Prior research on those who are “not religious” in the traditional, organizational sense has focused on a broad category of people in the United States who do not identify with an established religious tradition. We distinguish three categories of people who are religiously nonbelieving or nonbelonging: atheists, agnostics, and unchurched believers. Examining issues of religious belief and identity, we compare private spiritual life, attitudes on political issues, and stance toward religion in the public sphere for these three categories of nonreligious respondents. Atheists are the most uniformly antireligious. Agnostics, by comparison, are less opposed to religion overall, while unchurched believers display higher levels of personal religiosity and spirituality than atheists or agnostics. While atheists, agnostics, and unchurched believers are similar in their political identification and attitudes related to religiously infused political topics, unchurched believers are as strongly opposed to religion in the public sphere as atheists.     

Trust in God: The COVID-19 Pandemic's Impact on Religiosity in China

Emerging research shows the COVID-19 pandemic has made substantial changes to the religious climate of several nations. Surprisingly, China, the outbreak center of the pandemic, has been scarcely researched. Our study investigates how the COVID-19 pandemic has evoked new religious disaster responses and provided psychological coping mechanisms during the pandemic. We also explore how the pandemic explains surprising rates of religiosity in China. Scholars have long proposed that religious resurgence in China has been a result of individuals seeking stability in turbulent times. We bridge parallel Literatures in these areas and treat the pandemic as a natural experiment for evaluating religious behavior over time as conditioned by heightened risk perception. Utilizing a difference-in-differences estimation strategy with panel data, our study reveals that the pandemic has led to a significant increase in religiosity in China, particularly in religious areas most affected by the pandemic. We propose that even in a highly regulative religious environment, with most of its population being religiously unaffiliated, religion is a significant resource for coping in China. We take an innovative approach to demonstrate this by utilizing online search data. Our research speaks to the sociology of religion, the social psychology of risk perception, and makes application to emerging research on the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic.     

Religious Heterogamy and the Intergenerational Transmission of Religion in China

In Western societies, religious heterogamy and its effects on religious socialization outcomes have been interpreted through the lens of secularization. How about China, where religion has been resurging in recent decades? Using data from the 2007 Spiritual Life Survey of Chinese Residents, this study shows that despite China's atheist education system and strict religion policies, having at least one religiously affiliated parent is associated with increased religiosity compared to having two nonreligious parents. Whereas religious heterogamy in the West has a secularizing effect on the next generation, religious heterogamy in secular nations, such as China, has a religionizing effect and contributes to religion's rise.     

College Students' Perceptions of a Psychotherapist's Treatment of a Religious Issue: Partial Replication and Extension

A study of the influence of a counselor's treatment of a client's religious values, observers' religiosity, and their interaction on observers' perceptions of counseling (Morrow, Worthington, & McCullough, 1992) was partially replicated and extended. Religious beliefs were differentiated from religious values as determinants of observers' perceptions of counseling. Student observers (N = 148) viewed one of two videotaped counseling interactions in which a counselor either supported or challenged a client's religious values. Dividing observers into high and low levels of Christian belief did not result in their perceiving religiously supportive or challenging counseling differently. Dividing observers into high and low levels of religious values produced consistent differences in how they perceived religiously supportive and challenging counseling. Findings supported the theory that people with strong religious values perceive counseling differently than people with weaker religious values.     

Measuring Five Dimensions of Religiosity Across Adolescence

This paper theorizes and tests a latent variable model of adolescent religiosity in which five dimensions of religiosity are interrelated: religious beliefs, religious exclusivity, external practice, private practice, and religious salience. Research often theorizes overlapping and independent influences of single items or dimensions of religiosity on outcomes such as adolescent sexual behavior, but rarely operationalizes the dimensions in a measurement model accounting for their associations with each other and across time. We use longitudinal structural equation modeling with latent variables to analyze data from two waves of the National Study of Youth and Religion. We test our hypothesized measurement model as compared to four alternate measurement models and find that our proposed model maintains superior fit. We then discuss the associations between the five dimensions of religiosity we measure and how these change over time. Our findings suggest how future research might better operationalize multiple dimensions of religiosity in studies of the influence of religion in adolescence.     

Lead us not into temptation: Differential associations of religious identification with self-regulatory traits and abilities

While there has been considerable research on the link between religiosity and self-regulation, the directionality of both constructs remains equivocal. Moreover, little is known regarding the association between religiosity and performance-based measures of self-regulatory abilities, given that past studies have predominantly examined self-regulatory traits via self-reports. Drawing from a 9-year longitudinal dataset (Time 1: n = 4836; Time 2: n = 3467), cross-sectional findings indicated that religious identification was positively and negatively correlated with self-regulatory traits and abilities, respectively. Longitudinal findings revealed that self-regulatory abilities predicted negative changes in religious identification, and this effect strengthened from middle to late adulthood. No longitudinal relations between religious identification and self-regulatory traits were found. Our findings highlight the differential associations of religious identification with self-regulatory traits and abilities, and how these associations are modulated by advancing adulthood.     

Does Religious Activity Distinguish the Mortality Experiences of Older Taiwanese? An Analysis Using Eighteen Years of Follow-Up Data

This paper extends investigation of religiosity and longevity to Taiwan using a 1989 survey: N = 3849, aged 60+, with 18 years of follow-up. Religious activity is measured as worship and performance of rituals. A Gompertz regression, adjusted and non-adjusted for covariates and mediating factors, shows the hazard of dying is lower for the religiously active versus the non-active. Transformed into life table functions, a 60-year-old religiously active Taiwanese female lives more than 1 year longer than her non-religious counterpart, ceteris paribus. Mainland Chinese migrants are examined carefully because of unique religious and health characteristics. They live longer, but the religiosity gap is similar.

     

Longitudinal analyses of religious and spiritual development among seminary students

We conducted a longitudinal study of spiritual development among a sample of graduate-level seminary students (N = 119) at a religiously affiliated university in the Midwest. Seven longitudinal hypotheses were tested based on a relational model of spirituality (Shults & Sandage, 2006). Over time, we expected that the seminary context would facilitate increases in students’ questing, intrinsic religiosity, spiritual well-being, spiritual openness, and spiritual activity. Furthermore, increases in intrinsic religiosity were hypothesised to lead to improvements in spiritual well-being, spiritual openness, realistic acceptance, and spiritual activity. Finally, we proposed that increases in spiritual questing would lead to greater spiritual openness and activity but decreased spiritual well-being. The results provide general support for these hypotheses and an empirical picture that differentiates intrinsic religiosity from questing.     

What God has Joined Together: Family Formation and Religion among Young Adults

This study considers how family transitions influence future religiosity among young adults and demonstrates that both marriage and parenthood can serve to reinforce religious commitment among those who are religiously engaged. Drawing on data from the National Study of Youth and Religion, we look at religious change between Wave 3 (18–24 years old) and Wave 4 (23–28 years old) and how this varies across six family statuses: Married with Children, Married without Children, Cohabiting with Children, Cohabiting without Children, Single with Children and Single without Children. We find greater future religious engagement among married individuals compared to those who are single or cohabiting, regardless of the presence of children. Among single and cohabiting parents, however, the presence of children is associated with greater religious salience, though not with attendance at religious services. The findings demonstrate a continued link between the institutions of family and religion at a time when ties to both institutions are loosening.     

Parenting and Community Engagement Factors as Predictors of Religiosity Among Muslim Adolescents From Malaysia

Despite the plethora of research on correlates of adolescent religiosity, few studies have examined the contribution of social context to religiosity among non-Western Muslim samples using multidimensional religiosity measures. To address this gap, the current study investigated the influence of community engagement and parenting factors on religiosity among 596 Malaysian Muslim secondary school students (M age = 16.10, SD = .29). After controlling for gender, family structure, family income, and social desirability, the results showed that parental monitoring, mosque involvement, and school engagement significantly predicted religious worldview, whereas parental religious socialization, parental monitoring, mosque involvement, school engagement, and youth organization involvement accounted for a significant amount of the variance in religious personality. Implications for further research on socialization influences on religious development among adolescents are discussed.     

Religiosity and obsessive-compulsive behavior in Israeli Jews

Individual differences in obsessive-compulsive (OC) behavior in various cultures correlate with religiosity. The current paper explored the so far unstudied relationship between religiosity and OC behavior in Israeli Jews. Two studies were conducted. Study 1 focused on the relationship between religiosity and OC behavior in a representative sample of Israeli students. Study 2 focused on religious change and OC behavior in a non-random sample of 31 individuals who had become more religious (the MR group), and 30 individuals who were less religious (the LR group) than their parents. Instruments used were the Maudsley obsessive-compulsive inventory (MOCI), the student religiosity questionnaire, and questions about parental home observance, upbringing, and changes in religiosity. In the first study, no association was found between religiosity and OC behavior. Religiosity was related to some degree to perfectionism and to the parental attitude to upbringing. In the second study, a significant difference was observed between the MR and the LR groups on OC behavior as measured by the MOCI. Conclusion, among Israeli Jews a lot of religious observance is non-reflective, and is not associated with individual differences in personality or OC symptoms. Those who undergo religious change may do so in response to their behavioral propensities. One such path is that the more OC become MR, and the less OC less religiously observant.     

Internal Diversity in Buddhism: Comparing the Values of Buddhist Teens Raised by Heritage and Convert Parents

Self-assigned religious affiliation has been linked to different extents with other aspects of religiosity in Christians, but this correlation has not previously been studied for Buddhists. In this study, relevant attitudes were examined through focus groups conducted with 75 heritage- and convert-raised Buddhist teenagers at seven British locations. Issues investigated included identity, spirituality, congregational participation, hopes, worries, fears, parents, friends, substance use, and right and wrong. Similarities between the two groups did not particularly show Buddhist content. Contrasts included values concerning life after death, Buddhist identifiers, place of congregation, hopes, parental formality, spiritual teachers, femininity, meditation and the Sangha, alcohol and marijuana. The recommendations arising from this study are that social policy-makers working with religious identifiers would benefit from having awareness of the complex dynamic of religious styles in respect of Buddhism, shown in this research, and that future research on Buddhist identity and values should be clearly qualified by considerations of religious style.     

Theological Education for a Religiously Radicalized World: An African Pentecostal Assist

The resurgence of Pentecostal Christianity at a time of increased religious radicalization in Africa is a disconcerting development. This problem is further compounded by the dearth of analytical research that explores the role theological education should play in preparing Pentecostalism to engage a religiously radicalized Africa. This paper offers a response in three ways: first, it reviews the legacy of missionary theological education and offers an overview of religion and state relations in Africa. Second, it discusses theological education and the implications of the rise of Pentecostalism in a context of religious radicalization. Third, it outlines how theological education could be reinvigorated to enable Pentecostalism to confront the challenges of religious radicalization in Africa. The paper concludes that theological education is a compelling stimulus that enables African Pentecostalism to promote peaceful coexistence and tolerance in ways that bear witness to the gospel of peace as well as reflect the African agency of faith. 1     

Religious Resources or Differential Returns? Early Religious Socialization and Declining Attendance in Emerging Adulthood

The transition from adolescence into emerging adulthood is usually accompanied by a decline in religious participation. This article examines why such decline occurs at different rates across major Christian traditions and whether this variation can be explained by early socialization factors. Using data from waves 1 and 3 of the National Study of Youth and Religion (N = 1,879), I examine the effects of parental religiosity, church support, religious education, and youth group involvement on the decline in attendance five years later. Results show that these socialization processes adequately explain why attendance declines at different rates across religious traditions. However, these socialization factors do not have the same effect across traditions and often yield differential returns for attendance outcomes. These findings also suggest that comparisons across religious traditions can resolve the “channeling hypothesis” debate about whether parental influence on an offspring's future religiosity is primarily direct or indirect.     

Attachment,religiousness, and distress among the religious and spiritual: links between religious syncretism and compensation

Using the Adult Attachment Interview, we explored differences in attachment, distress, and religiousness among groups of traditionally religious, New Age spiritual, and religiously syncretistic (high on both) participants (Ps) (N?=?75). Religiously syncretistic Ps showed a preponderance of insecure attachment and were raised by non-religious parents, who were estimated as relatively insensitive. Moreover, religiously syncretistic Ps perceived a personal relationship with God and had experienced increased religiousness/spirituality during difficult life periods, but did not suffer elevated distress. New Agers often mirrored the religiously syncretistic, but had a more even secure–insecure attachment distribution, typically did not perceive a personal relationship with God, and did suffer elevated distress. Traditionally religious Ps were low on distress and raised by religious parents, estimated as relatively sensitive. We conclude that religious syncretism may often express religion/spirituality as compensation. Finally, we speculate that a perceived relationship with God may attenuate distress among those at risk.     

Explaining Cross‐National Variation in the Effect of Higher Education on Religiosity

While sociologists have long argued that higher education has a secularizing influence, recent research emphasizes the moderating role of social contexts in the relationship between social class and religion. I extend this line of research by examining sources of cross‐national variation in the association between higher education and religiosity using survey data from more than 46,000 respondents in 39 nations. Multilevel models of a religiosity scale show (1) in the aggregate, higher education has a moderate, negative effect on the religiosity scale, (2) this effect varies considerably across nations, and (3) the negative effect of higher education on religiosity is most robust in relatively religious nations. These results demonstrate the importance of national contexts in moderating the effect of education on religiosity. The results also support a cultural diffusion argument that suggests that the highly educated are innovators and early adopters of secular behaviors but that low levels of religiosity then diffuse to less‐educated segments of a population as secularity becomes more common.