The Relationship Between Religion and Religious Coping: Religious Coping as a Moderator Between Religion and Adjustment

This study examined the relationship between and among religion, religious coping, and positive/negative psychological adjustment and investigated whether the four religious coping styles of Self-Directing, Deferring, Collaborative, and Turning to Religion would significantly moderate the relationship between religion and psychological adjustment. Each of the four religious coping measures were significant moderators between religion and positive and negative adjustment. However, the high self-directing and high religion group showed opposite results from the other three coping styles, in that they were the most maladjusted and least satisfied with life compared to the other three integration and religious coping groups. The participants high on religion and high deferring, high collaborative, and high turning to religion groups were less maladjusted and more satisfied than the other three groups in each of these religious coping styles.     

Intersecting Identities as a Source of Religious Incongruence

Chaves (2010) argues that much of the work in the sociology of religion is susceptible to the religious congruence fallacy—the tendency to assume consistency between religious beliefs and one's attitudes and behaviors across situations when they are in fact highly variable. We build on and extend this argument by focusing on intersecting group identities as a mechanism for identifying such incongruence, not only within religious contexts, but also at the intersection of categories such as gender and race. To illustrate this argument, the analysis draws on data from the 2006 Panel Study of American Religion and Ethnicity (PS‐ARE) to assess how race, gender, and religion interact to produce different levels of attitude and behavior incongruencies on key issues of the day, specifically conservative social values and voting behaviors. The results find marked differences and inconsistent relationships between attitudes and behaviors across racial‐gender groups. We use the analysis to highlight the conditions that result in incongruence at the intersections of identity categories and pinpoint where social scientists are most vulnerable to committing the congruence fallacy.     

American Psychology of Religion and the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion

It is doubtful whether there ever has been a rise‐fall‐rebirth of the psychology of religion. While the claim has marginal merit for American academic psychology, it has little application in other cultures or even within American psychology of religion outside mainstream psychology. The psychology of religion has always been and remains tied to key individuals who sustain the field. This historical fact is important in understanding the role of the JSSR in the field. Early psychologists of religion such as Hall and James set the pattern for two distinctively different approaches to the psychology of religion. Hall's approach was methodologically restrictive, inherently reductive, and came to dominate the academic psychology of religion. James ‘approach was methodological plural, receptive to the evidential force of religious experience, and quickly marginalized within American psychology. These opposing orientation continue to influence the psychology of religion in societies such as the SSR and its journal. A review of the psychologist editors of JSSR illustrates that the psychology of religion remains a marginal interest of mainstream psychology. It survives because of the interdisciplinary nature of the SSSR and its journal.     

Group Size and the Trajectory of Religious Identification

The relative size of religious groups or denominations within societies or nations influences variation in the extent to which group members psychologically identify with their religion. National‐level census data measuring the proportional size of religious groups in New Zealand are merged with nationally representative data on self‐reported psychological identification drawn from the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study. A multilevel random coefficient model shows a logarithmic function for the relationship between religious group size and average group‐level religious identification. Members of smaller religious groups (less than 1.5 percent of the population) tend to strongly identify with their religion, whereas members of groups that are larger in size (over 6 percent of the population) tend to be less identified, on average. Religious group cohesion may be a dynamic process. Larger religious groups are less cohesive and experience more contested identities and ideological positions (average group identification is lower).     

Coping Response Inventory: Assessing coping among Iranian college students and introductory development of an adapted Iranian Coping Response Inventory (CRI)

Coping is related to mental and physical health outcomes, but cultural and societal differences may influence its nature and structure. This study reports on the adaptation of the Coping Responses Inventory for Adult (CRI-A) to the Iranian social and cultural context. Study 1 was designed to obtain qualitative data and test the construct and discriminative validity of coping scales. Factor analysis of the CRI and Iranian items yielded seven factors: Religious Coping, Problem Solving, Cognitive Avoidance, Positive Reappraisal, Seeking Guidance and Support, Seeking Alternative Rewards, and Acceptance/Resignation. Internally, consistencies varied considerably from 0.92 to 0.53. All sub-scales from the Coping Responses Inventory for Adult (CRI-A) were resistant to social desirability biases with the exception of Religious Coping and Problem Solving. In Study 2, the replicability of the adapted CRI-A factorial structure and concurrent validity for the newly developed religious coping sub-scale was demonstrated. Given the importance of the role of religious coping in health and well-being outcomes, the expression and use of which may be substantially influenced by cultural practices and norms, it is recommended that future research pursues the validation of context-specific constructs of religious and spiritual coping.     

Religious Deprivatisation in Modern Greece

Comparative surveys suggest that generational replacement has negative implications for the future of religion in Europe. Using Greece as a critical case, it is argued here that focusing only on the aggregate levels of personal commitment can lead to such exaggerated pessimism. This note shifts empirical attention to show how religious authority remains relevant in society despite declining trends in individual religiosity. Preliminary findings are based on a multi-dimensional definition of religious change, which includes the scope of church authority in the public sphere. European Values Study (EVS) data from 1999 suggest that societal modernisation is not a uniformly negative influence on religion, at least when the investigation moves beyond levels of individual commitment.     

Religion,Religious Tradition,and Nationalism: Jewish Revival in Poland and “Religious Heritage” in Québec

This article uses and develops Martin Riesebrodt's distinction between religion and religious tradition to shed light on the making of various articulations of religious identities and political projects. Based on extensive research on the Polish and Québécois cases, I show how social and state actors in these societies reactivate past religious traditions to respond to current social transformations and articulate societal projects and advance political agendas in the present. In both cases, religion and religious tradition are juxtaposed to articulate new national identities or fortify older ones, and to respond more specifically to the challenges posed by “pluralism.” I suggest that sociologists who work at the intersection of religion and politics can contribute to our understanding of the various registers through which religion, religious action, and religious tradition are rendered meaningful to social actors, used for different goals (religious and not) and transformed in the process.     

Updating Allport's and Batson's Framework of Religious Orientations: A Reevaluation from the Perspective of Self‐Determination Theory and Wulff's Social Cognitive Model

We theoretically and empirically evaluate Allport's intrinsic‐extrinsic and Batson's quest religious orientations through the lens of self‐determination theory (SDT) and Wulff's social‐cognitive model. Confirming our theoretical analysis, we find that Allport's intrinsic‐extrinsic dichotomy fails to correspond empirically to the differentiation between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation within SDT. Whereas Allport's intrinsic religious orientation was positively related to internalized extrinsic motivation, his two extrinsic (i.e., personal and social) religious orientations were not systematically related to any of the discerned motives within SDT. Furthermore, Batson's quest orientation was unrelated to any of the SDT concepts but was positively related to symbolic disbelief. The present findings suggest that Allport's motivational orientations model needs both refinement and relabeling to better fit with recent theoretical evolutions in the field of motivational psychology.     

Religious factors in moral decision-making: Towards an integrated,socio-cultural,developmental, model

Abstract

For far too long, developmental approaches in the psychology of religion have paid insufficient attention to the richness and variety of social and cultural factors in human development and their relationship to religious belief, practice, belonging, identity, and world views, and often, related framing of spiritual questions, concerns, and disciplines. If scholars in the psychology of human development and psychology of religion have offered critical appraisals of the shortcomings of the neo-Piagetian, cognitive-developmental models that have dominated the scientific literature, and offered promising contributions and needed correctives to the omissions of cognitive-developmental approaches, the field is still in need of an integrated, socio-cultural developmental approach to human development and religious functioning. In this article we propose one way of moving toward a more integrated approach in these fields, with special attention to the advantages of such an effort in the study of religious elements in moral decision-making and moral development.     

Religious coping and the threat of heart transplantation

The concern of this article is to examine the relationship between religiousness and state-and-trait anxiety in a sample of cardiac transplantation candidates. Religiousness was made operational by integrating measures of religious orientation and religious coping with cluster analysis to form religious coping profiles. Three religious coping profiles were identified:Deferring/Collaborators, Self-Directors, andEclectic. Analyses of variance indicated that coping profiles were significantly different in their report of trait anxiety, such that the Eclectics reported a good deal more trait anxiety than did the Self-Directors. This leads to a discussion of the implications for the clinical presentation of religious coping profiles in cardiac transplantation candidates.     

Religious Beliefs,Diet, and Physical Activity Among Jewish Adolescents

Despite a well‐documented connection between religion and mortality, the link between religion and obesity‐related outcomes and behaviors has not been adequately studied, particularly among adolescents. This study examines whether self‐reported religious beliefs influence decisions about physical activity and diet in a sample of Jewish adolescents (n = 351). The results show that reporting a stronger influence of religious beliefs on health behaviors is associated with behaviors related to physical activity, but not diet. In adjusted regression models, individuals who report that their religious beliefs influence decisions about being physically active “a lot” have significantly more active days per week than those who say their religious beliefs do not influence such decisions. Similar effects are seen with regard to the students’ overall amount of sedentary time. The results shed light on previously documented relationships between religion and health, provide practical implications for religious organizations and leaders, and suggest areas for future research.     

International Migration and Religious Selection

Migrants are selected by several characteristics (age, education, skill, health, and family migration experience). Often less examined is religious selection. Using Guatemalan data, this research note tests whether religious affiliation is significantly associated with migration to the United States, net of other competing factors. Results are robust, demonstrating that Protestants are more likely than other religious groups to migrate. Additionally, mediating factors (social networks, cultural norms, and ideological links) are tested to identify social mechanisms behind the Protestant effect. The research note concludes with implications of religious selection and how religious selection can be further examined in migration and religion studies.     

Religious Coping in College Students

Three religious-coping profiles (Self-directing, Deferring/Collaborative, and Eclectic) have been identified in previous research with cardiac-transplantation candidates. This study examines the existence of religious-coping styles in college students and tests the role of religious coping as a stress moderator of psychological and physical symptoms. Additional potential stress buffers were included to help explain the relationship between stress and symptomatology more completely. Results supported the existence of the three religious-coping profiles in students; however, no group differences were found for symptomatology. The role of religion in studies of stress for healthy individuals vs. clinical patients is discussed.     

Faith and Understanding: Specifying the Impact of Higher Education on Religious Belief

This study examines the impact of educational enrollment and attainment on several measures of religious belief using nationally representative panel data. Although college does not appear to substantially alter the religious beliefs of most emerging adults, findings do reveal a modest increase in skepticism toward super‐empirical religious beliefs among college students and graduates compared to those who have never attended any form of postsecondary education. This effect is dependent on college type, with students attending elite universities exhibiting the greatest increase in skepticism. Apart from changes in super‐empirical belief, graduating from college modestly increases preferences for institutionalized religion while simultaneously reducing adherence to exclusivist religious belief. Faculty commitment to secularism, the degree of student academic engagement, and developing social identities may play a role in religious belief change, particularly at elite universities.     

Religious Belonging,Religious Agency,and Women's Autonomy in Mozambique

Women's autonomy has frequently been linked with women's opportunities and investments, such as education, employment, and reproductive control. The association between women's autonomy and religion in the developing world, however, has received less attention, and the few existing studies make comparisons across major religious traditions. In this study, we focus on variations in levels of female decision‐making autonomy within a single religious tradition—Christianity. Using unique survey data from a predominantly Christian area in Mozambique, we devise an autonomy scale and apply it to compare women affiliated with different Christian denominations as well as unaffiliated women. In addition to affiliation, we examine the relationship between autonomy and women's religious agency both within and outside their churches. Multivariate analyses show that women belonging to more liberal religious traditions (such as Catholicism and mainline Protestantism) tend to have higher autonomy levels, regardless of other factors. These results are situated within the cross‐national scholarship on religion and women's empowerment and are interpreted in the context of gendered religious dynamics in Mozambique and similar developing settings.     

Fear of Rejection versus Religious Commitment as Predictors of Adjustment Among Reformed and Evangelical College Students in Canada

The contradictory findings about the (positive or negative) associations between religion and adjustment suggest that different aspects of religion might have different effects. A total of 160 men and 283 women attending two faith-affirming colleges in Canada completed measures of fear of rejection (by God and church members), religiosity, prosocial attitudes, social adjustment (work orientation, school attitudes), and personal adjustment (life satisfaction, self-esteem). Fear of rejection was found to be predictive of lower religious commitment and of poor social and personal adjustment. In contrast, religious commitment was found to be predictive of prosocial attitudes and of good adjustment. Religious commitment had much higher correlations with prosocial values and adjustment among men than among women. Regression analyses indicated that fear of rejection was a strong predictor of poor adjustment among religious persons.     

Religious Congregations as Mediating Structures for Social Justice: a Multilevel Examination

Scholars in the field of community psychology have called for a closer examination of the mediating role that religious congregations serve in society, especially in relation to the promotion of social justice. The current study provides such an examination, offering a multilevel examination of religious individuals (n = 5,123) nested within religious congregations (n = 62) with a particular focus on how individual and congregational level variables (i.e. theological orientation, frequency of religious attendance, bonding and bridging social capital) predict individual prioritization of and participation in congregational social justice activities. Findings indicated that individual level theological orientation was associated with prioritization, and demographics and social capital bonding were associated with prioritization and participation. Furthermore, congregational bridging social capital was associated with the prioritization of justice, whereas congregational theological orientation moderated the associations between frequency of religious participation for both prioritization of and participation in congregational justice activities. These findings show that specific aspects of the congregational setting (i.e., congregational theological orientation) are important to the individual prioritization of and participation in social justice activities. These findings provide support for the role of religious congregations as mediating structures for social justice. Implications for future research are also discussed.     

Social Support and the Religious Dimensions of Close Ties

Despite the influence of social support on physical and mental health, few studies have examined why some close ties are more supportive than others. Though religion provides a rich context for social interaction and a meaningful social identity, it has received little attention in the social support literature. A growing literature on religion and health offers insight into how religion affects social support processes. Using dyadic network data derived from the nationally representative 2006 Portraits of American Life Study, I examine how the religious dimensions of close, nonhousehold ties relate to provision of social support. Results from logistic regression analyses indicate that (controlling for a range of other social tie characteristics) same‐faith ties are significantly more likely to be sources of help “in times of need,” while religious discussion is a strong predictor of receiving both help and advice. The effect of religious homophily is strongest for evangelical Protestants and African‐American Protestants. My findings underscore the need for social support researchers to consider the role of religion in shaping support processes in close relationships.