Religion and Gambling Among Young Adults in the United States: Moral Communities and the Deterrence Hypothesis

Despite voluminous research examining religion as an integrative force and a mechanism of social control, relatively few studies have examined the association between religion and proscribed or morally ambiguous behaviors beyond crime and drug use. The present exploratory study examines the role of religion, at both the individual and county levels, in predicting self‐reported gambling problems. Hierarchical linear models are employed to examine religion and self‐reported gambling problems using the restricted use data of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. A negative association between religious attendance and problem gambling (at the individual level) is strongest when church adherents per capita is relatively high (measured at the county level). However, when the number of conservative Protestants per capita is relatively high, religious attendance (measured at the individual level) is associated with an increased risk of gambling problems. These countervailing findings are interpreted as supportive of the bonding and bridging capital thesis.     

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.     

鳏与寡对老年人抑郁水平的影响:社会网络的调节作用

为了进一步探讨丧偶与抑郁水平之间的关系,讨论社会网络（包括家庭网络和朋友网络）在其中的作用机制,并比较丧偶与抑郁水平的关系及社会网络作用机制的性别差异,本研究对中国老年社会追踪调查（CLASS）2014年调查中7649名老年人（其中丧偶老人2149名,男性715,女性1434;在婚老人5500名,男性3398,女性2102）的数据进行分析。结果发现,丧偶对老年人抑郁水平有消极影响,但影响作用不存在性别差异;男性丧偶老人的朋友网络显著低于男性在婚老人,而女性老年人中无此差异;相对于在婚老人,家庭网络对男性丧偶老人的抑郁水平的缓解作用更大,而在女性样本未发现家庭网络的缓冲作用。应重视丧偶老年人,特别是男性丧偶老年人,家庭网络的建设与维护,从而缓解丧偶对老年人心理健康的消极影响。     

Close Ties,Intercessory Prayer,and Optimism Among American Adults: Locating God in the Social Support Network

Prayer is often an interpersonal phenomenon. It represents not only a form of social support shared between or among people, but also a means of embedding an unobservable actor (God) within a conventionally observable social network. This study considers whether the receipt of intercessory prayer from close network ties is associated with future‐oriented well‐being. Analyses use social network module data from the Portraits of American Life Study (PALS), a nationally representative study of American adults containing a breadth of information not available in prior studies of networks, prayer, and well‐being. Despite experiencing more instances of recent adversity (mental or physical health problem, financial trouble, and unemployment), prayed‐for PALS respondents report the highest levels of optimism. Furthermore, the association between network prayer and optimism is robust to inclusion of individual‐level indicators of religiosity. Finally, other forms of social support that an individual receives from his or her close ties do not explain the benefits of intercessory prayer.     

The Moderating Impact of Social Networks on the Relationships Among Core Values,Partisanship, and Candidate Evaluations

Social networks are increasingly becoming recognized as a source of influence on political attitudes and behavior. In this study, we examine the moderating impact of social networks on the relationship among several attitudes. We argue that those who regularly interact with individuals with different views from their own will be more likely to think of themselves in nonpartisan terms. It is therefore hypothesized that an individual's discussion network influences the relationship between one's support for various core values and one's partisanship. As a corollary, we argue that disagreement in discussion networks reduces individuals' reliance on partisanship when forming subsequent attitudes. To test these propositions, we employ data asking respondents to list individuals with whom they discuss politics on a regular basis and who such individuals supported in a recent election to create a measure of network disagreement. Empirical tests provide strong support for our hypotheses.     

Religiosity and Deviance: An Examination of the Moral Community and Antiasceticism Hypotheses Among U.S. Adults

Several hypotheses regarding the relationship between religiosity and deviance are examined using data from the geocoded General Social Survey. An inverse relationship between religiosity and several forms of deviance was documented; however the moral community hypothesis, which would predict that the interaction between group‐level religiosity and individual‐level religiosity would be inversely related to deviance, was not supported for any of the forms of deviant behavior examined. Additionally, the antiasceticism hypothesis, which argues that religiosity is more effective at deterring minor rather than serious forms of deviance, is only partially supported by the results of the analysis. The theoretical implications of this line of research, as well as suggestions for future avenues of research, are also discussed.     

Rejecting Evolution: The Role of Religion,Education, and Social Networks

Large segments of the American public are skeptical of human evolution. Surveys consistently find that sizable minorities of the population, frequently near half, deny that an evolutionary process describes how human life developed. Using data from the National Study of Youth and Religion, I examine the role of religion and education in predicting who changes their beliefs about evolution between late adolescence and early emerging adulthood. I conclude that religion is far more important than educational attainment in predicting changing beliefs about evolution. Perhaps more importantly, I find that social networks play an important moderating role in this process. High personal religiousness is only associated with the maintenance of creationist beliefs over time when the respondent is embedded in a social network of co‐religionists. This finding suggests that researchers should pay far more attention to the social context of belief formation and change.     

Social Support and Mental Health Outcomes Among U.S. Army Special Operations Personnel

Mental health disorders continue to plague service members and veterans; thus, new approaches are required to help address such outcomes. The identification of risk and resilience factors for these disorders in specific populations can better inform both treatment and prevention strategies. This study focuses on a unique population of U.S. Army Special Operations personnel to assess how specific avenues of social support and personal morale are related to mental health outcomes. The results indicate that, whereas personal morale and friend support reduce the relationship between combat experiences and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), strong unit support exacerbates the negative effects of combat experiences in relation to PTSD. The study thus shows that although informal social support can lessen postdeployment mental health concerns, military populations with strong internal bonds may be at greater risk of PTSD because the support that they receive from fellow service members may heighten the traumatic impact of combat experiences.     

Assessing Representations of Close Relationships Among Chinese and Japanese Adolescents and Young Adults: Commonalities and Differences in the Two Confucian Cultures

This article proposed an affective relationships model with its assessment instrument and examined how Chinese and Japanese adolescents and young adults construct mental representations of their close relationships, and the influence of Confucian cultural beliefs on these representations. The participants were 1,565 students aged 14 to 24 years living in China or Japan. The students were asked about their relationships with four figures: mother, father, closest friend, and romantic partner. We found that: (a) adolescents and young adults in both cultures constructed constellations of relationships containing multiple figures, and they articulated reasons for each figure's significance; and (b) there were between-group differences in the relationships with the father and the romantic partner for Chinese versus Japanese adolescents and young adults. These differences were partly explained by the influence of Confucianism on the Chinese participants’ cultural beliefs that retained the patriarchal values.     

When Psychologists Work with Older Adults: A Survey of Ethical Beliefs and Practices

Despite the number of publications concerning legal and ethical issues faced by psychologists, and despite the increased interest in addressing specific concerns related to aging, little is known about the actual beliefs and practices of psychologists when they work with older adults. Given the changing demographics in the United States, many mental health professionals will have contact with older adult clients, and the focus of the present study was to examine the extent to which psychologists are prepared to work competently with older adult clients. Survey data were collected from 156 APA Division 12 (Clinical Psychology) and 17 (Counseling Psychology) members regarding the degree to which they engaged in each of 50 behaviors and the degree to which they considered each behavior ethical. Findings are presented in terms of percentages of responses to items on the questionnaire, and ANOVAs were performed on important demographic items to identify statistically significant differences among variables. Coursework in geropsychology or aging, specialization with older adults, and working with a high percentage of older adults were related to higher scores on the Overall Ethical Behavior scale. Females scored higher than males on the Overall Ethical Belief scale.     

Differences in Friendship Networks and Experiences of Cyberbullying Among Korean and Australian Adolescents

ABSTRACT

Cyberbullying is one of the negative consequences of online social interaction. The digital environment enables adolescents to engage in online social interaction beyond the traditional physical boundaries of families, neighborhoods, and schools. The authors examined connections to friendship networks in both online and offline settings are related to their experiences as victims, perpetrators, and bystanders of cyberbullying. A comparative face-to-face survey of adolescents (12–15-year-olds) was conducted in Korea (n = 520) and Australia (n = 401). The results reveal that online networks are partially related to cyberbullying in both countries, showing the size of social network sites was significantly correlated with experience cyberbullying among adolescents in both countries. However there were cultural differences in the impact of friendship networks on cyberbullying. The size of the online and offline networks has a stronger impact on the cyberbullying experiences in Korea than it does in Australia. In particular, the number of friends in cliques was positively related to both bullying and victimization in Korea.     

The French Connection: Crea,Mauss, and the Academic Study of Religion in the U.S.A.

Mircea Eliade (ed. in chief), Charles J. Adams, Joseph M. Kitagawa, Martin E. Marty, Richard P. McBrien, Jacob Needleman, Annemarie Schimmel, Robert M. Seltzer, Victor Turner (eds), Lawrence E. Sullivan (associated ed.), and William K. Mahony (assistant ed.), The Encyclopedia of Religion. New York, Macmillan, and London, Collier, 1987, 16 volumes. $1,200     

Religion and Health Among Older Mexican Americans: Exploring the Influence of Making Mandas

A manda is a religious quid pro quo whereby an older Mexican American promises to perform a religious act if the Virgin or one of the saints grants a request. The purpose of this study is to see whether making mandas is associated with health among older Mexican Americans. Findings from the study model suggest that making mandas is associated with a greater sense of personal control, and more personal control is associated, in turn, with better health.     

Generating Trust in Congregations: Engagement,Exchange, and Social Networks

The relationship between religion and trust is complex and there is little consensus on why, in general, religious people appear to be more trusting than their unaffiliated peers. Most research on religion and trust focuses on differences between traditions and denominations, which offers rather limited insight into the genesis of trust for religious persons. In this study, we draw on recent theoretical developments in social psychology to explore how specific patterns of social interactions within congregations enhance within‐congregation trust among members to the benefit of both churches and individuals. Using survey data from the Portraits of American Life Study, we find that the positive relationship between religiosity and trust is driven less by religious beliefs or practices and more by particular characteristics of micro‐level processes that occur in churches (e.g., closeness of relationships to religious leaders, density of congregational ties, and both giving and receiving aid from other congregation members). In light of research on social learning and trust, we also discuss the potential benefits of this particularized trust for individuals’ levels of generalized trust.     

Reproductive Vocabularies: Interrogating Intersections of Reproduction,Sexualities, and Religion among U.S. Cisgender College Women

Although feminists often examine the ways reproduction shapes women’s lives, such research typically only focuses on the effects of reproduction after the fact while leaving reproductive decision-making beforehand unexplored. In the present article, we flip this pattern by outlining the “vocabularies of motive” (Mills 1940) cisgender women offer for wanting to engage in or abstain from reproduction. Based on in-depth interviews with 20 class-privileged, cisgender U.S. women in college who possess the resources to forego reproduction, we analyze how they define their reproductive intentions as (a) conforming to social expectations, (b) seeking fulfillment, (c) replicating past experience, and/or (d) rejecting reproduction and parenting. Further, we compare and contrast the reproductive vocabularies of motive offered by heterosexual and bisexual as well as religious and nonreligious cisgender women in our sample. In conclusion, we draw out implications for understanding women’s reproductive decision-making and the social construction of reproductive norms.     

Parenting Dimensions and Internalizing Difficulties in Italian and U.S. Emerging Adults: The Intervening Role of Autonomy and Relatedness

The present study examined the associations between emerging adults’ perceived parental psychological control and autonomy support, and their autonomy, relatedness and internalizing difficulties in Italy and the U.S. The participants included 494 Italian and 414 U.S. college students, between 18 and 28 years of age (Mean = 21.58, SD = 2.18). Our findings showed that dependency-oriented psychological control had no significant direct associations with autonomy, relatedness or internalizing difficulties. Moreover, the association between parental autonomy support and internalizing problems was fully intervened by autonomy and relatedness, whereas the association between achievement-oriented psychological control and anxiety and depressive symptoms was partially intervened by autonomy and relatedness. Finally, although parental psychological control and autonomy support had similar effects on maladjustment across the two countries, relatedness appeared to play a more central role as an intervening variable for anxiety in the Italian group than in the U.S. group. Overall, our findings highlighted the importance of examining parents’ contributions to emerging adults’ internalizing problems via autonomy support and psychological control across cultures.     

Hegemonic Masculinity and Mental Health Among Older White Men in the U.S.: The Role of Health and Wealth Decline

Millions of men in the US experience substance abuse and impulse control disorders, which is well researched. Far fewer scholars have studied the millions of men that also experience depression (which is traditionally associated with women). Drawing upon literature on fragile masculinity and masculinity threat, we evaluate the role of endorsing hegemonic masculinity ideals (e.g., men should be strong, unemotional, and financially secure) in both internalizing (depression) and externalizing (anger) mental health problems, focusing on older White men aged 70–74 in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Survey (N?=?1,794). In addition to predicting mental health among older men according to their agreement with hegemonic masculinity ideals, we examine the impact of two potential threats to masculinity: health and wealth decline. We find that endorsement of hegemonic masculinity ideals is positively associated with externalizing and internalizing symptoms and that the association between hegemonic masculinity ideals and depressive symptoms is even stronger for men who perceive their health to be declining and those who have lost wealth. We conclude that endorsement of rigid hegemonic masculinity ideals negatively impacts older men’s mental health, especially when they experience challenges to their self-perception as strong, independent, and self-reliant. We provide suggestions as to how improving our understanding of the association between masculinity beliefs and mental health can inform clinical practice as well as public health and public policy.