Religious Attendance and Volunteering: Testing National Culture as a Boundary Condition

Numerous studies have documented the importance of religion, and especially of religious congregational attendance, in regard to volunteering. Most of these studies focus on individual and contextual factors, usually within one country. Recent studies suggest that the association between religious attendance and volunteering varies among countries. We hypothesize that national culture plays an important role in explaining volunteering mainly as a moderator of the relationship between religious attendance and volunteering, especially on volunteering to help people in need. To support this position, we used individual‐level data from the World Values Survey (WVS) coupled with national data on cultural measures. This enabled assessment of these relationships using a multilevel analysis of individuals nested in countries. We used two models of national culture, Hofstede (1984) and WVS to explain the differences between countries. We found direct relationships between national culture constructs (power distance and survival/self‐expression values) and volunteering. We also found that individualism, power distance, and survival/self‐expression values moderated the effect of religion on volunteering, with a stronger relationship between religious attendance and volunteering in nationalities with self‐expression values, high power distance, and low individualism. Theoretical and practical implications of this approach are discussed.     

The association between religion and self-reported academic honesty among college students

Current research yields inconsistent findings about the association between religious variables and academic cheating among college students. In this study, we investigated possible reasons for this disagreement by examining whether, and to what extent, three particular religious variables: religious identity, affirmation of importance and religious services attendance, are associated with academic honesty among college students. Specifically, we utilised a sample of 2503 American college-aged students from Gallup^® daily tracking survey and used analysis of variance (ANOVA) to address the proposed research question. Research findings indicate that religious service attendance is positively associated with academic honesty among college students. Specifically, students who attend religious services more frequently are less likely to be engaged in academic misconduct than students who attend less frequently. This finding remains consistent when other important factors such as student attitudes toward cheating and gender were included in the analysis.     

Opposing Trends of Religious Attendance and Religiosity in Predicting Elders’ Functional Recovery after an Acute Myocardial Infarction

This study examined the role of religion and spirituality in older adults’ functional recovery following an AMI. Participants were interviewed within 2 weeks of the AMI about their religious beliefs. Functional recovery was evaluated using the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) at one month and seven months. We found that those who reported attending religious services more frequently had better functional recovery. In contrast, those who considered themselves more spiritual had worse functional recovery. These findings remained after controlling for age, gender, co-morbidity (Charlson Co-Morbidity Scale), depression (CES-D), social support (MOS Social Support Survey), and grip strength in Linear Mixed Models. The implications of the findings are discussed.Dr. Levy is an Associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Public health at Yale University. Her research focuses on the influence of psychosocial factors on aging health. She received the Margaret M. Baltes Early Career Award in Behavioral and Social Gerontology from the Gerontological Society of America, the Springer Award for Early Career Achievement on Adult Development and Aging from the American Psychological Association, and a Career Award from the National Institute on Aging. She was also awarded a Brookdale National Fellowship for Leadership in Aging. Kathryn Remmes Martin received her Bachelor’s Degree from the College of the Holy Cross and her Master’s Degree (MPH) in Chronic Disease Epidemiology from Yale University. She is currently a doctoral student in the Health Behavior and Health Education Department at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, School of Public Health.     

Parent Motivation to Participate in Treatment: Assessment and Prediction of Subsequent Participation

Treatment motivation is required for virtually all psychosocial treatments because clients must participate actively in the treatment process. In child and family treatments, it is the parent who must be motivated to manage treatment participation; however, no measures are currently available for evaluating parent motivation for treatment. The authors developed and evaluated a brief rating scale, the Parent Motivation Inventory (PMI), to measure parent motivation to participate in treatment. Results supported a uni-dimensional measure with strong internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Increases in parent motivation predicted the perception of fewer barriers to treatment participation, which was significantly associated with greater treatment attendance. The PMI provides a reliable and valid method of assessing parents’ motivation to participate in treatment and has implications for the prediction and potential modification of barriers to treatment and treatment participation.     

Contingency Management for Attendance to Group Substance Abuse Treatment Administered by Clinicians in Community Clinics

Contingency management (CM) is effective in enhancing retention in therapy. After an 8-week baseline, four community-based substance abuse treatment clinics were exposed in random order to 16 weeks of standard care with CM followed by 16 weeks of standard care without CM or vice versa. In total, 75 outpatients participated. Patients who were enrolled in the clinics when the CM treatment phase was in effect attended a significantly greater percentage of therapy sessions than patients who were enrolled in treatment when CM was not in effect. This study is one of the first to investigate CM in community settings implemented entirely by community clinicians, and results suggest that CM is effective in improving therapy attendance.     

Self-esteem,motivation and school attendance among sub-Saharan African girls: A self-determination theory perspective

Sub-Saharan samples are severely under-represented in the psychological literature. Taking an ecological approach, the current study examines key propositions derived from self-determination theory in a sample of adolescent girls in Mozambique. As a framework theory, self-determination theory consists of six sub-theories. We test the main premises of two of these theories: organismic integration theory and basic psychological need theory. In line with organismic integration theory, we assess the role of intrinsic, extrinsic, introjected and identified motivation for school attendance. We also test the possible moderating role of the ecological variable resource scarcity. The second part of the study focuses on the main premise of the basic psychological need sub-theory, which states that satisfaction of the needs for relatedness, competence and autonomy underlies intrinsic motivation, goal-directed behaviour (school attendance) and well-being (self-esteem). The study also assesses the moderation of resource scarcity in these relationships. Results provide support for both sub-theories of self-determination theory. Resource scarcity is not found to moderate the relationships between motivation and attendance or between need satisfaction and well-being, motivation and attendance. Implications for the universality claim of self-determination theory, as well as for the field of international development aid, are discussed.     

PROMPTS TO INCREASE ATTENDANCE IN A COMMUNITY MENTAL-HEALTH CENTER1

The effect of a brief appointment reminder for mental-health center applicants is reported. A standardized phone message was delivered by an administrative staff member one to three days before the appointment and a sequential experimental design alternating baseline and phone message conditions was used to assess the effects of the procedure. The no-show rate averages were 32%, 11%, 25%, and 14% respectively. The cost of the procedure was $162.00, which was totally recovered when only six appointments were kept. Since over 1000 patients were involved in the study, the return on the investment of $162.00 is considerable. Implications for this procedure are discussed for other community mental-health centers and for other community care-giving agencies.     

Attendance pressure during organizational change

The present study examines the relationships between aspects of the concept attendance pressure and sickness absenteeism. The study was carried out in a large public company in Norway during a major reorganization. It was hypothesized that employees with sickness absenteeism during this period would experience a high degree of attendance pressure in the form of reactions from managers, fellow workers, and job insecurity. Two surveys were carried out with the same sample (N=401). Attendance pressure in the form of censure pressure explained significant parts of the variance in sickness absenteeism. Employees with sickness absenteeism during the reorganization were a vulnerable group with low job satisfaction, significant health problems and low personal work ethics. Implications for preventive work on organizational level are discussed.Financed by the Research Council of Norway.     

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.     

Treatment Participation among Children with Conduct Problems and the Role of Telephone Reminders

Children with antisocial, aggressive and disruptive behaviour problems are among the most frequent referrals to mental health services. These young people and their families present with a range of adverse contextual factors and can prove challenging to engage. We examined the characteristics of children with conduct problems, treatment participation, and the impact of telephone reminder calls. Consecutive referrals (N=262) to two child and youth mental health services were randomly assigned to either a reminder call condition or service as usual. In comparison to referrals without conduct problems, conduct problem children presented with greater sources of psychosocial adversity, attended fewer initial appointments and were at greater risk of treatment refusal. Importantly, telephone reminder calls significantly increased treatment attendance, though only for participants with elevated conduct problems. Telephone reminder calls, however, had no impact on treatment refusal, regardless of conduct problem status. The findings highlight a straightforward approach for enhancing treatment participation among a group that has been challenging for mental health services.