Religious Orientation and Health among Active Older Adults in the United States

This study utilizes a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic Religious Orientation Scales to explore the connection between religion and health in a sample of physically active, older adults. The revised Religious Orientation Scale and the RAND Short Form 36 (SF-36) were adopted to relate religious orientation (intrinsic, extrinsic, pro-religious, and non-religious) and self-rated mental and physical health status. Individuals of pro-religious orientation reported significantly worse health for physical functioning, role limitations due to physical health, and energy or fatigue when compared with those of all other religious orientations; however, no dose–response relationships were found between religious orientation and self-rated health. The results of this study indicate that deleterious health effects may accompany pro-religious orientation. Caution is provided for directors of religious programs for older adults.     

Mindfulness in Iran and the United States: Cross-Cultural Structural Complexity and Parallel Relationships with Psychological Adjustment

In theory, mindfulness has a role to play in resolving intercultural conflicts. This suggestion rests upon the relatively untested presumption that mindfulness operates similarly across cultures. In a test of this presumption, university students from two countries that are often in conflict at the governmental level, Iran (N = 723) and the United States (N = 900), responded to the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (Brown and Ryan Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 84(4):822–848, 2003), along with an array of other psychological measures. This Mindfulness Scale displayed structural complexities in both societies, but a measurement invariant subscale was nevertheless identified. Similar cross-cultural evidence of concurrent validity was obtained in relationships with wide-ranging measures of adjustment. Nonsignificant linkages with Public Self-Consciousness and Self-Monitoring demonstrated discriminant validity in both societies. These data identified mindfulness as a cross-culturally similar psychological process that could plausibly have a role in resolving intercultural conflicts.     

Extrinsic Cultural Religious Orientation: analysis of an Iranian measure in university students in the United States

Previous research examining Iranian university students suggested that an Extrinsic Cultural Religious Orientation may be more important than an Extrinsic Social Religious motivation in maintaining Muslim religious commitments. The present project demonstrated that a similar conclusion seemed applicable to the largely Christian commitments of American university students. In the United States, an Extrinsic Cultural Religious Orientation Scale displayed a factor structure like that observed in Iran, was a more robust and consistent predictor of psychological adjustment than the Extrinsic Social Religious Orientation, and was sensitive to spiritual as well as religious dimensions of commitment. Peace and Justice and Cultural Foundations factors from this scale were relatively more positive in their adjustment implications than were Disorder Avoidance and Family and Social Order factors. Noteworthy contrasts between the present American and previous Iranian data appeared in Extrinsic Cultural Religious Orientation relationships with a sense of identity and with cognitive empathy. These results confirmed that the Extrinsic Cultural Religious Orientation deserves additional research attention in both Muslim and more secular Western societies.     

Sexuality and Religious Commitment in the United States: An Empirical Examination

I provide an empirical assessment of the religious commitments of gays, lesbians, and bisexuals in the United States. I compare the religiosity of gay men and lesbians and bisexuals to each other and to male and female heterosexuals, while controlling for a host of sociodemographic factors that may contribute to differences across the gender/sexuality groups. To accomplish this, I examine data from the 1991–2000 General Social Surveys (GSS). During this period, the GSS asked respondents for the sex of their sex partners over the last five years. The GSS finds that 4.3 percent of men and 3.1 percent of women report same-sex sexual partners in the five years preceding the interview—this is a larger proportion than members of "other" races, Episcopalians, or Jews. I find that gay men have high rates of religious participation, while lesbians and bisexuals have significantly lower rates of participation. Nonheterosexuals are more likely to become apostates when compared to female heterosexuals, but no more so than are heterosexual men. My findings are at odds with religious pundits who suggest that alternative sexuality mixes with religion more often for females than for males. The results are in concert with contemporary theories regarding the formation of religious preferences, and risk preferences and religiosity.     

Religious Involvement among Caribbean Blacks in the United States

This study examined demographic and denominational differences in religious involvement (i.e., organizational, non-organizational, subjective) among Caribbean Blacks (Black Caribbeans) residing in the U.S. using data from the National Survey of American Life. Caribbean Blacks who were born in the U.S. had lower levels of religious involvement than those who immigrated and respondents originating from Haiti (as compared to Jamaica) had higher levels of religious involvement, while persons from Trinidad-Tobago reported lower service attendance than did Jamaicans. Older persons, women and married persons generally demonstrated greater religious involvement than their counterparts, while highly educated respondents expressed lower levels of self-rated religiosity. Denominational differences indicated that Baptists reported high levels of religious involvement; however, in several cases, Pentecostals and Seventh Day Adventists reported greater involvement.     

Couple Adjustment and Differentiation of Self in the United States,Italy, and Spain: A Cross-Cultural Study

This study comprises a first attempt to explore a cross-cultural application of Bowen family systems theory and examines the relationship between differentiation of self and couple adjustment using measurement invariance. A sample of 2,141 individuals (n = 915 from the United States; n = 635 from Italy; n = 591 from Spain) completed measures of differentiation of self (DSI-R; Skowron & Schmitt, J Marital Fam Ther, 29, 2003, 209) and couple adjustment (DAS; Spanier, J Marriage Fam, 38, 1976, 15). Results showed evidence of partial measurement equivalence for the DSI-R across the three samples. Additionally, results from latent regression showed that less emotional cutoff predicted greater couple adjustment in the United States, Spain, and Italy, whereas greater emotional reactivity predicted poorer couple adjustment only in the more collectivistic cultures, Spain and Italy. Our findings are consistent with prior empirical studies, which suggest that emotional cutoff is a strong predictor of relationship adjustment. The use of measurement invariance provides a foundation for future studies to continue employing rigorous statistical methods when examining constructs across different cultures. The findings highlight culture-specific similarities and differences in differentiation that may benefit practitioners by informing psychotherapy with individuals, couples, or families from diverse populations.     

Counting the Faithful: Measuring Local Religious Contexts in the United States

This study compares the estimates of religious composition of counties in the United States from three independent datasets: the 2010 Religious Congregational Membership Study (RCMS); the 2010 Infogroup Congregational membership data (INFO); and the Gallup Daily Poll—a large national survey with more than 1.3 million respondents. My analyses suggest that the estimates for most major religious groups from the three datasets are highly correlated to each other. In addition, the measures of local religious compositions from the three datasets successfully predict the religious composition of friendship networks in a large, nationally representative survey. These findings suggest that RCMS, the most widely used data source for measuring local religious composition in the United States, has a convergent and predictive validity. My analyses, however, also highlight important challenges in measuring geographic distributions of non‐Christian populations, as well as total religious populations in all religious traditions.     

Presidential Appointments and Religious Stratification in the United States, 1789–2003

In America's colonial period, the “Protestant Establishment” (Anglicans, Congregationalists, and Presbyterians) had more access to political power than “Other Colonial Elites” (Quakers and Unitarians), “Other Protestants” (e.g., Baptists and Methodists), and “Others” (e.g., Catholics, Jews, and people with no religious affiliation). To what extent has this pattern of religious stratification persisted and/or changed over the course of U.S. history? New data on the religious affiliations of U.S. presidents, cabinet members, and justices on the Supreme Court indicate that the Protestant Establishment and Other Colonial Elites are not as dominant as they once were but continue to be overrepresented in the White House, in the cabinet, and on the Supreme Court. Other Protestants and Others have made noteworthy gains but continue to be underrepresented in most spheres of national political life. Presidents from all religious strata are more likely to appoint people who belong to the Protestant Establishment than any other religious stratum. Other Protestants and Others are most likely to appoint religious outsiders. Thus, political appointments are a means by which religious stratification both persists and changes.     

Local Religious Subcultures and Generalized Social Trust in the United States

Using multilevel analyses of 21,193 General Social Survey respondents nested within 256 metropolitan areas and counties, we find that individuals’ willingness to trust others is strongly related to the denominational make‐up of geographic areas. The percent of evangelical Protestants in the population negatively predicts individual‐level generalized trust, while percent mainline Protestant and percent Catholic positively predict trust. The effect sizes of these results are large and robust to statistical controls, and they hold even among nonmembers of the religious groups; for instance, “percent evangelical” predicts lower trust even among nonevangelicals. Black Protestant population share initially appears to predict lower trust, but the association disappears after adjusting for racial residential segregation. Following a longstanding theoretical tradition in the sociology of religion, we argue that the religious characteristics of places—not just individuals—shape local subcultures in ways that affect a broad range of behaviors, attitudes, and values such as generalized trust.     

Religious Ambivalence,Liminality, and the Increase of No Religious Preference in the United States, 2006–2014

Americans identified less and less with organized religion over the past two decades. Yet apparently, many people who no longer identify with a religion are not consistently nonreligious. Reinterviews reveal that many people who express no religious preference in one survey name a religion when asked the same question in a subsequent interview. Past research called this phenomenon a “liminal” status. This article improves estimates of liminality by using three interviews and a better statistical model. About 20 percent of Americans were liminal in recent years, 10 percent were consistently nonreligious, and 70 percent were consistently religious. Falling religious identification in cross‐sectional data over the last three decades reflects slow change in religious identity, but some of the rise of the nones is due to more liminals saying they have no religion. Liminals appear equally among people raised conservative Protestant, mainline Protestant, or Catholic.     

The Political Activities of Religious Congregations in the United States

In recent decades, much research has focused on how religious congregations affect individuals' political participation. However, only scant attention has been paid to examining the various ways in which religious congregations engage in political activism as formal organizational entities. Using data from the 1998 National Congregations Study (NCS), a survey of a nationally representative sample of 1,236 religious congregations, we begin to fill this gap in our knowledge about religion and politics. We report the rates at which congregations engage in a broad range of political activity, and we examine variations in this activity among major religious traditions. We emphasize two basic findings. First, although in absolute terms congregations' levels of political activism seem rather low, relative to other nonpolitical organizations they engage in politics in substantial numbers. Second, there are qualitative rather than quantitative differences in political activity across religious traditions. Religious traditions specialize in different modes of political participation, a fact that is obscured when attention is focused solely on the political activities of conservative religious groups.     

Public Support for Religious Education in the Nineteenth-century United States

The purpose of this paper is to examine the three overlapping movements during the nineteenth century that sought to provide public support for religious education. The first movement sought to fund denominational schools directly from public revenues. These publicly supported denominational schools received funds from the state in proportion to the number of students they enrolled. The second movement tried to establish common non-denominational religious schools. These non-denominational religious public schools were supported by the Protestant majority, though opposed by Catholics and Lutherans. In the third movement, the religious public schools, attempted to create schools that were nondenominational during the class hours but were denominational outside class hours.     

Religious Activities, Religious Orientation, and Aggressive Behavior

Theorists and clinicians have long believed that religious practice may reduce aggression and other destructive behaviors. To date, most evidence for a relationship between religiosity and aggression comes from nonexperimental studies. The purpose of this exploratory study was twofold. First, to examine experimentally whether two religious practices reduce aggressive behavior; second, to determine if specific aspects of religious orientation and spiritual transcendence are related to level of aggression, expressed under controlled laboratory conditions. Sixty-two participants assigned to one of three experimental groups (memorize Bible passages, prayer/meditation, or control group) completed a laboratory task of aggression. Participants also completed religious and spirituality instruments, along with self-ratings of aggressive disposition. Results indicated that neither memorization of biblical passages nor meditation reduced aggression. Intrinsic-oriented religiosity participants self-reported lower aggression than extrinsic-oriented participants, but no differences were found on the laboratory task of aggression. Spiritual transcendence showed no behavioral aggression differences .     

Believe It Or Not: Religious and Other Paranormal Beliefs in the United States

Paranormal beliefs are often divided between those that are central to traditional Christian doctrine, such as the belief in heaven and hell, and those that are commonly associated with the supernatural or occult, such as the belief in ESP and psychic healing. This study employs data from a recent nationwide random sample general population survey to catalog the social correlates of paranormal beliefs and to examine the relationships between religious and other paranormal beliefs. The results indicate that standard social background factors do a poor job of accounting for who believes in paranormal phenomena and that the importance of specific background factors changes dramatically from phenomenon to phenomenon. The results also show that the correlations between belief in religious phenomena and other paranormal phenomena are largely insignificant. These findings call into question many prevailing theories about paranormal beliefs.     

A United States Forensic Sample for the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scales

The Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scales (GSS) is a valuable test to use as part of a comprehensive assessment of psychological and interrogative factors relevant to a defendant's vulnerability to giving a false or involuntary confession. One limitation of the test is that the manual only provides information for samples from Iceland and Great Britain. This report describes the results of 334 individuals in the United States, who were administered the tests as part of an evaluation to assess confession‐related issues in a forensic context (i.e., capacity to waive Miranda rights or vulnerability in providing a false or involuntary confession). This forensic sample includes both juveniles and adults. Results are consistent with Gudjonsson's British and Icelandic samples, in which the Yield 1 score is more affected by intellectual and cognitive variables, but Shift and, to a lesser extent, Yield 2 scores are more related to emotional and personality characteristics. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Developmental Differences in Understanding of Balance Scales in the United States and Zimbabwe

This cross-cultural, developmental study of understanding of the physics of a balance scale involved 2 age groups (5- and 22-year-olds) in 2 countries (the United States and Zimbabwe). A factorial design was used. Each participant solved 6 types of balance scale problems, and the patterns of errors for these problem types were analyzed to determine which rules and concepts the participant used (e.g., whether number of weights was considered). As expected, on average, older participants were more accurate than younger participants, although significant age differences in the Zimbabwean sample were not found for problems solved by weight or distance cues. One finding differing from earlier research was that problems in which the beam balanced were more difficult for all participants. Generally, understanding of the physics of a balance scale appeared fairly similar in the 2 countries. Some cultural practices may account for the findings—in particular, the availability of preschool and age at time of academic specialization in higher education.     

The Importance of Social Context in Cross-Cultural Comparisons: First Graders in Colombia and the United States

The authors explored the cultural constructs of individualism and collectivism by investigating the prosocial behavior of 1st graders (N = 202; 110 girls, 92 boys) in countries typically classified as collectivist (Colombia, South America) and individualist (United States). Contrary to expectations. U.S. children shared more than Colombian children did. However, U.S. children were more likely to take candy from another child without permission (demonstrating individualism). Results indicated that in both countries sharing was greater with friends than with other fellow classmates, and children frequently reported friendship as the reason they shared. Findings support the importance of the social context, such as the relationship between participants, in cross-cultural research and suggest that simple dichotomies of culture often overlook complex associations between culture and behavioral differences.