Work-Related Psychological Health Among Clergy Serving in The Presbyterian Church (USA): Testing the Idea of Balanced Affect

Drawing on the classic model of balanced affect, the Francis Burnout Inventory (FBI) conceptualises good work-related psychological health among clergy in terms of negative affect being balanced by positive affect. In a random sample of 744 clergy (539 clergymen and 205 clergywomen) serving in The Presbyterian Church (USA), negative affect was assessed by the Scale of Emotional Exhaustion in Ministry (SEEM) and positive affect was assessed by the Satisfaction in Ministry Scale (SIMS). At the same time, burnout was independently assessed using self-report measures of overall health and burnout, and by the extraversion and neuroticism scales of Eysenck’s dimensional model of personality. These independent measures of burnout indicated higher burnout among those who were emotionally exhausted and lower burnout among those who had high levels of satisfaction with their ministry. Crucially for proving the idea of balanced affect, there was a significant interaction between the effects of SEEM and SIMS scores on these independent measures of burnout, showing that the mitigating effects of positive affect on burnout increased with increasing levels of negative affect.     

Religious Coping Among the Religious: The Relationships Between Religious Coping and Well-Being in a National Sample of Presbyterian Clergy, Elders, and Members

This study examined whether the relationships between religious coping and well-being are moderated by the salience of religion to the individual's identity and social roles. As part of a national survey of Presbyterians, 1,260 clergy, 823 elders, and 735 members completed measures of demographic variables, global religiousness, life stressors, positive and negative religious coping, and well-being (positive affect, depressive affect, religious satisfaction). Our predictions were largely confirmed. First, clergy reported higher levels of positive religious coping than elders, who, in turn, indicated more positive religious coping than members. Second, positive and negative religious coping were associated with higher and lower levels of well-being respectively. Finally, positive and negative religious coping were more strongly related to well-being for clergy than for members. Furthermore, the drawbacks of negative religious coping for the clergy were not offset completely by the benefits of positive religious coping. Longitudinal studies of the longer term implications of positive and negative religious coping are clearly warranted. The results also suggest the need for supportive and educational services to help clergy draw on their religious coping resources and come to terms with their spiritual struggles.     

The Religious, the Paranormal, and Church Attendance: A Response to Orenstein

Orenstein's (2002) JSSR article "Religion and Paranormal Belief" uses Reginald Bibby's 1995 Project Canada data to argue that religious and paranormal belief are positively correlated, but that church attendance and paranormal belief are negatively correlated. In this response, I use the same data to show that while his basic model is true, we also need to consider the interaction between church attendance and religious belief. Religious attendance conditions the effect of religious beliefs on paranormal beliefs in an important fashion. I find that religious and paranormal belief are positively correlated, but only for those who do not attend church regularly.     

The Association Between Religious Beliefs and Practices and End-of-Life Fears Among Members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A)

This study examines the association between various religious beliefs and practices and fears pertaining to death and dying in a national sample of liberal Protestant U.S. adults. Data were analyzed from a 2002 survey of members and elders of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) (N = 935). Four measures of religion were tested together in models predicting four end-of-life fears. Church attendance (p < .01), other church involvement (p < .05), and belief in life after death (p < .001) had negative associations with the fear of what happens after death. Private devotion was inversely related to the fear of dying in pain (p < .05). Involvement in church activities (p < .05), aside from religious services, was inversely related to the fear of leaving loved ones behind. Females tended to be more fearful than males of dying alone and dying in pain and older adults tended to be less fearful than younger adults of the unknown and of leaving loved ones behind.     

Changes in Religious Giving Reflect Changes in Involvement: Age and Cohort Effects in Religious Giving, Secular Giving, and Attendance

We present two patterns over time in religious giving, secular giving, and religious service attendance. The first pattern describes the prewar cohort (born 1924–1938) as they aged between middle adulthood (ages 35–49) and their senior years (ages 62–76). The second pattern compares the baby boom cohort (born 1951–1965) in middle adulthood to the middle adulthood of the prewar cohort. We present patterns for all families as well as separately for Catholic and Protestant families using data from three sources. The prewar cohort increased their religious giving and attendance as they aged, but—compared to the prewar cohort in middle adulthood—baby boomers give less than expected to religion and attend less. Baby boomer giving is noticeably less than expected and attendance noticeably lower among Catholic boomers, but less so among Protestant boomers. We argue that together these patterns are evidence that changes in religious giving reflect changes in religious involvement.     

Religious Attendance, Health Maintenance Beliefs, and Mammography Utilization: Findings from a Nationwide Survey of Presbyterian Women

Preventive health services, such as mammography, play an increasingly important role in maintaining women's health. Social factors, such as religion, may influence utilization rates by expanding access, offering information, and increasing motivation. The current study examines the relationship between religious involvement, religious beliefs, and mammography usage in a nationally representative sample of Presbyterian women ( N = 1,070). We use multivariate logistic regression models to estimate the influence of religious service attendance and two health-related religious beliefs on self-reported mammography use. The findings show that religious attendance is significantly associated with mammogram use. Women who attend services nearly every week are almost twice as likely to use mammograms compared to women who attend services less frequently or never. Furthermore, the belief that spiritual health is related to physical health is also associated with the use of mammograms.     

Relationships Among Anxiety,Belief System,and Creativity

Abstract

The effect of subjects' locus of control of reinforcement and self-monitoring orientations on their ability to identify the emotional meaning of facial expressions was evaluated under competitive and noncompetitive instructions. On the basis of social learning principles, it was predicted that internally controlled, high-self-monitoring American college students would be the most accurate; the results confirmed the prediction. The impact of locus of control and self-monitoring orientations was greatest on male subjects who had received competitive instructions. In addition, female subjects were more accurate than male subjects, and positive emotions were more often correctly identified than negative ones.     

责任归因、幸灾乐祸与帮助意愿的关系

本研究具体探讨在他人出现不幸时,作为同学、同伴等的归因、责任推断、幸灾乐祸情感反应程度以及想不想提供帮助的程度之间的关系模型。结果表明：内部归因对责任推断具有显著预测作用;消极情感对同情和幸灾乐祸有显著的预测作用;责任程度与幸灾乐祸关系密切;幸灾乐祸和同情对帮助意愿有显著的预测作用。     

Church Attendance and Happiness Among Northern Irish Undergraduate Students: No Association

Robbins and Francis (1996) note that the relationship between religiosity and happiness varies according to the precise measures used and the samples studied. To further explore the association between religiosity and happiness, 154 Northern Irish undergraduate students completed the Depression–Happiness Scale and a measure of frequency of Church attendance. No significant association was found between a greater frequency of Church attendance and happiness scores. As such, these findings compliment previous research using the Depression–Happiness Scale alongside an attitudinal measure of religion, and support the view that when happiness is operationalised in terms of the Depression–Happiness Scale there is no association with either attitudinal of behavioural measures of religiosity.     

Religious Change and Stability: Seasonality in Church Attendance from the 1940s to the 2000s

Using attendance data from a declining Episcopal church and a growing Lutheran church in a medium‐sized midwestern city, we explore the issue of seasonality in church attendance from the 1940s to the late 2000s. Our central concern is whether month‐to‐month variation in church attendance has remained the same or changed over the period of time under consideration. We find remarkable consistency in the overall month‐to‐month attendance pattern over the course of the past seven decades but less variation in attendance from month to month in more recent decades in both churches. We argue that the findings demonstrate the presence of a “committed core” of church members who attend regularly and the departure of nominal members who have swelled the ranks of the “nones” in recent decades.     

Delay Discounting as a Function of Intrinsic/Extrinsic Religiousness,Religious Fundamentalism,and Regular Church Attendance

Delay discounting occurs when the subjective value of an outcome decreases because its delivery is delayed. Previous research has suggested that the rate at which some, but not all, outcomes are discounted varies as a function of regular church attendance. In the present study, 509 participants completed measures of intrinsic religiousness, extrinsic religiousness, religious fundamentalism, and whether they regularly attended church services. They then completed a delay-discounting task involving five outcomes. Although religiousness was not a significant predictor of discounting for all outcomes, participants scoring high in intrinsic religiousness tended to display less delay discounting than participants scoring low. Likewise, participants scoring high in religious fundamentalism tended to display more delay discounting than participants scoring low. These results partially replicate previous ones in showing that the process of discounting may vary as a function of religiousness. The results also provide some direction for those interested in altering how individuals discount.     

Alcohol Use and Church Attendance Among Seventh Through Twelfth Grade Students,Dominican Republic, 2011

Excessive alcohol consumption increases the years of life lost to premature death and disability worldwide. Religion is a mitigating factor in alcohol consumption. A survey in the Dominican Republic showed increasing church attendance by middle and high school students (N = 3,478) was associated with a delay in age at first alcoholic drink, fewer students who had consumed alcohol in the past month (current drinkers), lower alcohol consumption levels, fewer episodes of inebriation, and less heavy episodic alcohol consumption (all P < 0.0001). The results suggested that it may be useful to conceive of church-attending youth as a subset of the adolescent social network when planning primary alcohol prevention programs for young people.     

Some Implications of Denominational Heterogeneity and Church Attendance for Alcohol Consumption Among Hispanics

This article evaluates complementary perspectives on the relationship between religion and alcohol among Hispanics. In particular, it examines whether religion may be related to alcohol consumption through two mechanisms, one deriving primarily from doctrinally specific norms, and the other a denominationally independent effect of social integration. The basic premise is that these mechanisms may operate in relative independence. Thus, the article argues that in a fully specified model, variations in alcohol use that are associated with prohibitive norms can be distinguished from those that are associated with membership in a religious community (irrespective of its alcohol norms). The former effect is unique to members of Protestant denominations that object to the use of alcohol; the latter also accrues to the Catholics. A separate, exploratory analysis looks at whether these effects differ by gender. The results indicate that both mechanisms reduce the likelihood of alcohol consumption, but that the doctrinally specific normative one is more powerful. Furthermore, it appears that alcohol-use norms are more salient for men than for women, although the findings are not as robust as expected.     

Church Attendance and Religious Change in Italy, 1968–2010: A Multilevel Analysis of Pooled Datasets

The debate over religious change in Italy is far from having reached unanimous conclusions: some scholars point to an unbroken trend toward a decrease of religiosity, while others highlight the signs of a religious revival, especially in younger generations. Besides difficulties with definitions, different conclusions are also due to a lack of information over a sufficiently long period of time. This problem is tackled here by developing a pooled analysis of repeated cross‐section surveys that span over four decades. Using six different studies, the article analyzes the secularization trend in Italy on the basis of church attendance that, despite well‐founded criticism, continues to be a crucial indicator of this phenomenon. The results, estimated using multilevel models, show that the trend of attendance at Mass in Italy has decreased since the 1960s until today, despite a period of stability at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s. The overall trend looks like a “recumbent S” trend (decrease up to the 1970s, stability in the 1980s, decrease afterwards). Thus, the claims of a religious revival in Italy are not supported by our results.     

Church Attendance,Religious Activities,and the Life Satisfaction of Older Adults in Middletown,U.S.A.

ABSTRACT

The central focus of this study is to examine the patterns and relationships which may or may not exist between religious attendance and activity, sex, health, income, and age with regard to the sense of subjective well-being as expressed by older Middletowners. Based on a random sample of 400 persons, 60 years of age and older, a multiple regression analysis reveals that three variables account for the vast majority of variance in life satisfaction. Those variables are: SUBJECTIVE HEALTH STATUS, SATISFACTION WITH INCOME, and CHURCH ATTENDANCE. For those three variables R = .4780; R² = .2284. When all seven independent variables were included R = .4851; R² = .2351. In addition, further analysis was undertaken to examine the interrelationships between the seven independent variables.     

Religious Affiliation and Attendance Among Immigrants in Eight Western Countries: Individual and Contextual Effects

This study examines the religious affiliation and participation of immigrants from a large-scale, comparative perspective. I propose a "specific migration" framework, in which immigrants' religiosity is an outcome of both individual characteristics and contextual properties related to immigrants' country of origin, country of destination, and combinations of origin and destination (i.e., communities). I use notions discussed in the religion and migration literature that fit into this scheme. To test these ideas, I collected and standardized 20 existing surveys on immigrants in eight Western countries, yielding about 38,000 immigrants. Applying multilevel models, I found, among other things, that: (1) immigrants from countries with higher levels of modernization express lower levels of religious commitment; (2) immigrants in religious countries are more religious themselves; and (3) the well-documented higher levels of religious commitment among women is not generalizable to immigrants.     

The Conflict Between Religion and Science in Light of the Patterns of Religious Belief Among Scientists

Recent summaries of psychologist James H. Leuba's pioneering studies on the religious beliefs of American scientists have misrepresented his findings and ignored important aspects of his analyses, including predictions regarding the future of religion. Much of the recent interest in Leuba was sparked by Edward J. Larson and Larry Witham's commentary in Nature (3 April 1997), “Scientists Are Still Keeping the Faith.” Larson and Witham compared the results of their 1996 survey of one thousand randomly selected American scientists regarding their religious beliefs with a similar survey published eighty years earlier by Leuba. Leuba's original studies are themselves problematical. Nonetheless, his notion that different fields of science have different impacts on the religion‐science relationship remains valid. Especially significant is his appreciation of religion as a dynamic, compelling force in human life: any waning of traditional beliefs does not mean a decrease in religious commitment but calls for a new spirituality in harmony with modern scientific teachings. Leuba's studies, placed in proper context, offer a broad historical perspective from which to interpret data about religious beliefs of scientists and the impact of science and scientists on public beliefs, and opportunity to develop new insight into the religion‐science relationship.     

Religion,Personality, and Well-being: The Relationship Between Church Attendance and Purpose in Life

A sample of 517 first-year, undergraduate students attending an Anglican College in Wales completed the Purpose-in-Life Scale (PILS) together with the short-form Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQR) and a measure of church attendance. After controlling for individual differences in personality, the data demonstrate a significant positive correlation between church attendance and scores on the PILS. A growing body of evidence indicates that attendance at religious services tends to promote the psychological wellbeing of college students.     

Church Attendance,Problems of Measurement,and Interpreting Indicators: A Study of Religious Practice in the United States, 1975–2010

Church attendance is usually measured in surveys by asking a direct question about frequency of churchgoing over a preset period of time, which is typically a year. Different studies have cast doubt over the validity of this indicator as it tends to overestimate actual attendance to a significant degree. The aim of this article is to compare data on church attendance provided by two different types of research conducted in the United States between 1975 and 2010: survey data (GSS) and data obtained from time use surveys (ATUS). This comparison has three main objectives: (1) to confirm the hypothesis that survey data tend to overestimate actual attendance; (2) to show that this overestimation is not constant over time and space, but tends to vary in an erratic and unpredictable way; and (3) to demonstrate that data provided by time use surveys are more reliable than the frequencies of churchgoing provided by traditional surveys when the objective is to identify trends in religiosity in a population.