Cultural and Religious Values: A Cross-Cultural Study In Austria,South Africa and Egypt

This article compares religious values found on the basis of the lexical approach in three cultures. Lists of human values in Austria (German), South Africa (Northern Sotho) and Egypt (Arabic) were compiled. These terms were rated by 456, 400 and 773 participants respectively as personal guiding motives in life. Factor analyses yielded orthogonal dimensions reflecting the specific values of each culture. In all three cases, a dimension pertaining to religious issues emerged. For Austria, a distinct dimension was found, which only comprised religious terms. In South Africa religious values were interrelated with mutual support, while in Egypt, religiosity was highly correlated with political concerns and Arabic nationalism. While only about 25% of the Austrian sample gave positive evaluations to religious values, most of the South African and Egyptian participants rated religiosity positively. Results suggest that religious values are ubiquitous and religious convictions are influenced by the ethical concepts in each culture.     

Religious Involvement and Depression: Evidence for Curvilinear and Stress‐Moderating Effects Among Young Women in Rural China

Debates about whether the relationship between religiousness and depression is nonlinear have continued, but no definitive conclusions thus far have been drawn. Unlike most previous research in this area, which has been based on U.S. populations, this study focuses on a sample of 882 young rural Chinese women. Results from analyses reveal an inverse U‐shaped relationship between intrinsic religiosity and depression. In addition, results show that intrinsic religiosity and religious activities exacerbate the deleterious effects of particular life events such as childbirth issues and marital conflicts. Implications of the findings for future studies on the subject are discussed.     

Does Religion Suppress,Socialize, Soothe,or Support? Exploring Religiosity's Influence on Crime

A negative association between religiosity and crime is commonly documented in the United States and other Western contexts. In this study, we examine associations between religiosity and criminal probability among randomly selected survey respondents in a non‐Western Christian context (Lviv, Ukraine) and a non‐Western Islamic context (Dhaka, Bangladesh). In addition, we explore whether religiosity is associated in these contexts with various theoretical mechanisms identified in prior research, including self‐control, social control, moral beliefs, negative emotions, and social support. Results confirm that religiosity is negatively correlated with projected criminal probability in non‐Western contexts as well as among both Christian and Muslim respondents. Furthermore, net of social and demographic characteristics, religiosity appears to indirectly influence crime through moral beliefs and, to a lesser extent, through self‐control and informal social control.     

Relationship Patterns and Role of Religion in Elderly Couples with Chronic Illness

ABSTRACT

This study was designed to explore the various relationship patterns and the role religion plays as a coping resource for elderly couples in which at least one spouse has a chronic illness. Elderly couples were interviewed and also completed marital satisfaction and couple communication inventories. Five different relationship patterns emerged from the data: active couples, short-term caregivinjg couples, long-term caregiving couples, survival couples, and live-in caregiver couples. Various aspects of religion emerged as an important coping resource among the different relationship patterns. Ideas and questions for research and practice, generated by the study, are presented.     

The Significance of Religion in Lasting Marriages

ABSTRACT

The significance of religion in marriage has been studied in different ways. The research on which this paper is based used in-depth interviews to explore the significance of religion to a culturally diverse sample of husbands and wives who had been married to each other for over 20 years (M = 35.25, SD = 8.25). We asked individual spouses to discuss the importance to unimportance of religion in their marriages and the role that it may have played in their relationships. Both quantitative and qualitative procedures were used. An analysis of demographic and relational factors that may have shaped the importance of religion in recent years is presented. A second level of analysis was then employed to identify themes about the significance of religion in these marriages from the perspectives of each spouse. Three themes were identified: mixed to no significance of religion on marriage, religion as supportive and emerging spirituality.     

Everyday lived Islam: religiosities and identities of Muslim women in the Republic of Macedonia

In the Republic of Macedonia, most Muslim women belong to the Albanian minority. Particularly due to the current fractured nature of the Macedonian societal body and the diverse historical developments that have led to this, the importance of ethnic identities is emphasised and religious identities, especially Orthodox Christian and Muslim identities, fortify them. Everyday lived religion, its active enacting, and the values Islam represents can be important to Muslim women in the Republic of Macedonia and manifest themselves, for instance, in the human relationships within Muslim communities. Everyday lived Islam may also be an important factor when women’s roles in the larger societal context are examined. The 19 Albanian women whom I interviewed during the period 2008–2009 described in a relatively detailed manner their everyday lived Islam and religiosities, how these affected their lives and how these were localised in everyday situations. This also gave an insight into the way the Muslim women negotiated their identities in different contexts. In this article I examine, drawing on the concepts of everyday lived religion, religiosity, and identity, how Islamic values and traditions could be localised through women’s narratives in relationships within the Muslim communities, between men and women, between different Muslim communities, and in the wider societal context.     

An examination of the complex associations between religiousness and femininity among US Christian women

Although various forms of religiousness have been found to be associated with women’s body image, sexuality, and personal and professional roles, these studies have failed to examine multiple aspects of religiousness and femininity (i.e., conformity to feminine norms) concurrently. The current study explored the association between femininity and religiousness among women using multivariate definitions of these constructs. As hypothesised, there were multiple significant associations between religiousness and femininity. In terms of the more complex, multivariate relationships, more conservative and “traditional” religiousness was found to be associated with high sexual fidelity, adherence to domestic roles, and adherence to being sweet and nice. Also, minimal engagement in religiousness was associated with low levels of modesty, low adherence to being nice, and more emphasis on being in a romantic relationship. Several simpler, bivariate relationships were also found as hypothesised.     

Religion,moral thought–action fusion,and obsessive–compulsive features in Israeli Muslims and Jews

Previous studies suggest that the link between obsessive–compulsive (OC) symptoms and moral thought–action fusion (TAF) depends on religion; however, no study has compared Muslim and Jewish samples. We examined the relationships between OC symptoms, scrupulosity, religiosity, and moral TAF in Israeli Muslims and Jews. Religiosity was not associated with elevations in OC symptoms, although religiosity correlated with scrupulosity across the entire sample after controlling for depression and anxiety. Moral TAF was related to scrupulosity across the entire sample. The Muslim group had higher levels of OC symptoms, scrupulosity, and depressive symptoms than did the Jewish group, but the groups were equally religious. In addition, Muslims scored higher than did Jews on moral TAF even after controlling for symptoms; however, moral TAF was not related to scrupulosity within the Muslim group. In combination, these results imply that moral TAF depends on cultural and religious factors and does not necessarily indicate pathology.     

Examining patience as a psycho-religious construct in Iranian patients with cardiovascular diseases: a pilot study

The current study aimed to compare patience and its components in cardiovascular patients (CVPs) with healthy individuals. Ninety-one patients with cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) referring to the clinic of Imam Reza in the city of Shiraz in Iran, and 91 healthy individuals were recruited by convenience sampling method. They completed demographics questionnaire and the Patience Scale. The data were analysed by sets of analysis of covariance. Results showed significant difference between CVPs and healthy participants on patience (M?=?85.92, SD?=?12.69 vs. M?=?90.45, SD?=?11.33); patients had less patience mean than their healthy peers (F?=?9.423, η²?=?.050, p?=?.002). The results also indicated that cardiac patients had significantly lower scores on patience components of transcendence, persistence, and delay than the healthy group (all p’s?p?>?.05). According to the results of the present study, it can be inferred that less patience may play a key role in vulnerability to physical illnesses such as CVDs.     

Religiosity and adolescent marijuana use

Among adolescents, religiosity has been associated with lower rates of marijuana use, though few studies have examined its impact on the perceived risk of use. There is strong support that perceived risk of using marijuana is negatively correlated with the frequency of use. We examined the relationship among religiosity, perceived risk, and marijuana use from a national survey of adolescents that contained questions about lifetime, weekly, and past month substance use, social support, religious involvement and attitudes, and perceived riskiness of use. We tested a structural equation model of relationships among latent variables of religiosity and perceived risk, and an observed variable of total days of marijuana use in the past 12 months. Results indicated the model was a good fit to the data and described a mediating relationship of perceived risk of use between religiosity and marijuana use. Implications for leveraging religiosity in prevention of substance use are discussed.