Does Religion Breed Trust? A Cross‐National Study of the Effects of Religious Involvement,Religious Faith,and Religious Context on Social Trust

Many previous studies have linked religiosity to social trust. Yet much of this relation remains insufficiently understood, which is partly due to the fact that religiosity is a multidimensional phenomenon. In this article, we identify several of those dimensions, including the integration in religious communities, the importance of God in people's lives, and the religious context. These dimensions give rise to different mechanisms that produce both trust‐enhancing and trust‐reducing effects. Data from the European Values Survey (2008) were used to test the resulting hypotheses, using multilevel logistic regression models. We conclude that the micro effects are ambivalent: integration in religious communities furthers trust, whereas religious socialization and the importance of God lower trust. On the macro level, we find a strong effect of Protestantism, which is in line with previous studies, but that remains puzzling since the individual‐level difference between Protestants and the other religious traditions was found to be very small. In addition, in contrast to other studies, we found that religious diversity increases social trust.     

Are uninvolved fathers really incompetent and unsatisfied? Testing the mediator role of father involvement from fathers’ perspectives

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between fathers’ involvement and maternal gatekeeping, gate-opening, and traditional paternal gender roles, as well as to evaluate fathers’ involvement as a mediating role in the relationship between maternal gate-opening, gatekeeping, traditional paternal gender roles, paternal competence, and marital satisfaction. Turkish fathers (N = 239) with a child aged 2–6 years were included in the study. They assessed maternal gatekeeping and gate-opening, their traditional gender roles, parenting competence, and marital satisfaction. Results indicated that fathers’ involvement is positively related to maternal gate-opening and negatively associated with traditional paternal gender roles; in addition, fathers’ involvement has a mediatory role between maternal gate-opening, traditional paternal gender roles and paternal competence and marital satisfaction. The results suggest that fathers who are involved in their children’s lives are more competent and have higher marital satisfaction.     

小学儿童数学焦虑的潜在类别转变及其父母教育卷入效应：3年纵向考察

研究采用潜在转变分析考察小学儿童数学焦虑的类别转变以及父母教育卷入在小学儿童数学焦虑类别转变中的作用。以1720名三、四年级儿童为被试, 对其数学焦虑和感知到的父母教育卷入进行3次追踪, 每次间隔1年。结果表明：(1)小学儿童数学焦虑存在低数学焦虑组、高数学评估焦虑组和高数学获得焦虑组3种不同类别; (2)随时间的推移, 高数学评估焦虑组倾向于向低数学焦虑组转变, 高数学获得焦虑组倾向于向高数学评估焦虑组转变, 而低数学焦虑组稳定性较强; (3)父亲/母亲教育卷入对儿童数学焦虑类别转变的预测作用, 因不同的数学焦虑类别而异。上述发现为深入理解数学焦虑的形成机制以及干预措施的制定提供了重要参考。     

Inner-City African American Parental Involvement in Children's Schooling: Racial Socialization and Social Support from the Parent Community

Parents (n = 161) and teachers (n = 18) from an urban elementary school serving primarily African American children completed questionnaires regarding racial socialization, social support, and involvement in activities that support youth educational achievement at home and school. Parental reports of racism awareness, and contact with school staff were significantly correlated with parent reports of at-home involvement and at-school involvement. Parent reports of social support from the parent community were significantly related to at-home involvement only. Relative to teacher reports, parents reported more formal contacts with school staff, and higher levels of racism awareness, religiosity, and African American cultural pride. Teachers and parents agreed on school climate and parental levels of at-home and at-school involvement. The results suggest that racial socialization processes are related to parent involvement in children's schooling and that increased efforts are needed to bridge a cultural gap between parents and teachers in inner-city communities.     

Personality,Leisure Experiences and Happiness

This study explored the relationships among personality, leisure involvement, leisure satisfaction and happiness in a representative sample of Chinese university students (n = 423). We found that (1) extraversion significantly correlated with almost all kinds of leisure involvement, but neuroticism did not correlate with leisure activities at all; (2) extraversion significantly positively correlated with leisure satisfaction while neuroticism significantly negatively correlated with leisure satisfaction; and (3) while extraversion and neuroticism were significant predictors of happiness, leisure satisfaction had its incremental effects after those of personality traits and other domain satisfaction were controlled. Implications of these findings for developing a Chinese psychology of leisure were discussed.     

Reciprocal involvement in adolescent dating aggression: An Italian–Spanish study

This study aimed to: (1) analyse the association of different patterns of reciprocal involvement in dating aggression (reciprocal psychological and physical aggression; reciprocal psychological aggression; non-aggressive individuals) with different qualities of romantic relationship; and (2) compare results in two European countries, Italy and Spain. Participants were 304 adolescents (141 Italy, 163 Spain) with a current dating relationship. Results in both countries showed that adolescents involved in reciprocal psychological and physical aggression are more likely to have higher levels of couple conflict and power imbalance as compared to the reciprocal psychological aggressive group and to the non-aggressive individuals. Besides, adolescents involved in reciprocal psychological aggression are more likely to have lower levels of support as compared to the non-aggressive individuals. Discussion is focused on different patterns of reciprocal involvement differentiated in relation to level of aggression, conflict and power imbalance.     

The role of core self-evaluations in the relationship between religious involvement and subjective well-being: a moderated mediation model

This study examined whether core self-evaluations (CSE), a personality-based construct, mediates the association between religious involvement and subjective well-being (i.e., physical and psychological). Furthermore, investigates whether the indirect relation of religious involvement to well-being through CSE is conditional on age group (elderly vs. adults). Two different samples were examined: an elderly (N?=?300) and an adult community sample (N?=?294). To determine whether the strength of these effects depend on (moderated by) age group, we used multiple regression analyses and bootstrapping framework to probe conditional indirect (i.e., moderated mediation) effects. The results showed that CSE mediates the relationship between religious involvement (i.e., religious attendance and intrinsic religiosity) and both aspects of subjective well-being. However, the moderated mediation models revealed that this mechanism exists only for elderly. Implications of these results for improving the quality of life in elderly are discussed and directions for future research are provided.     

The effect of message framing and the nature of the targeted illness on individuals’ intention to participate in clinical trials

IntroductionClinical trials are considered as the most useful methods to evaluate the efficacy of new medical treatments, but the participation of healthy individuals is often too small, which limits the statistical power of the trial and hence its effectiveness.ObjectiveThe goal of the present research is to assess, for the first time, the effects of message framing (gain versus loss) and of the nature of the illness targeted by a clinical trial (highly- versus mildly-contagious) on individuals’ intention to enter it.MethodsThe experimental manipulation is carried out within a scenario promoting a clinical trial, in a 2 (framing: gain vs loss) × 2 (nature of the illness: highly- vs mildly-contagious) between-participants design. After reading the scenario, participants were asked to rate their intention to enter the trial and their perception of its utility.ResultsStatistical analyses validated a causal model explaining that a gain-framed message describing a highly-contagious illness increases the perception of the utility of the clinical trial, which in turn enhances the intention to participate.ConclusionThe discussion mainly focuses on the contributions of these findings at a theoretical level, considering the limits and potential of their possible application.