Browsing by Subject "Psychology, Religious"

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Familial religious involvement and children's mental health outcome
(2008-05) Vaaler, Margaret Lommen, 1977-; Ellison, Christopher G., 1960-; Musick, Marc A.
These three studies use two waves of the National Survey of Families and Households to investigate the influence of parents’ religious commitment and involvement on children’s internalizing and externalizing problems over time. In addition, the analyses will examine of different forms of family instability and parenting practices mediates this relationship. Furthermore, does parental religiosity moderate the relationship between instability and children’s mental health problems? The first study shows that children whose parents are both religiously unaffiliated, exhibit elevated internalizing problems compared to children from mixed-faith households. Evangelical Protestant affiliation moderated the relationship between parents’ frequent arguments and internalizing problems. In addition, children whose mothers are more theologically conservative than the fathers show elevated levels of internalizing problems. In addition, theological dissimilarity (mothers more conservative) plays a moderating role between frequent arguments and internalizing problems. The second study shows that children from religiously homogamous households, exhibit lower than average externalizing problems. In addition, fathers’ religious involvement protects their children from externalizing problems, even when accounting for various forms of family instability and parenting practices. Furthermore, children whose mothers are more theologically conservative than fathers, show elevated levels of some externalizing problems. Structural equation modeling analyses show that parents’ socioeconomic status is related to parental religious dissimilarity, parental divorce and parental praise of children. When mothers are more theologically conservative than fathers, these couples are at higher likelihood of frequent parental arguments. As a consequence, their children are at an elevated likelihood of difficulty concentrating, internalizing problems, and externalizing problems. Frequency of parental arguments is also positively related to divorce. If high conflict marriages end, children are at a reduced likelihood of externalizing problems. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.
Religious internalization, church-based social support, and religious copin g in adult Christians
(2006-08) Chaison, Angelic Denise, 1977-; Richardson, Frank C.
Research has shown that religious coping is one of the strongest predictors of psychological adjustment and event-related outcomes to stressful situations among religious individuals. However, little is known about what prompts a person to engage in various coping strategies during stressful situations. This dissertation project aims to increase the understanding of different facets of religious life that may contribute to and influence the coping process. To understand better how intrapersonal and interpersonal aspects of one’s faith predict the coping behaviors he or she uses, this study examined the relationships of religious internalization and church-based social support with both religious and nonreligious coping. In the first phase of the project, 206 adult Christians responded to quantitative questionnaires about religious internalization, church-based social support, and coping. In the second phase, interviews were conducted with 10 individuals who completed the quantitative questionnaires in phase 1. Generally, it was hypothesized that (1) identified vs. introjected religious internalization and (2) church-based social support would predict religious and nonreligious coping among religious individuals. As expected, identified and introjected religious internalization styles were predictive of positive and negative religious coping, respectively. Identified religious internalization also predicted restraint coping (an aspect of nonreligious problem-focused coping) as expected; however, it failed to predict planning coping (an aspect of nonreligious problem-focused coping). Spiritual support predicted positive religious coping as expected; however it failed to predict restraint and planning coping. Contrary to predictions, emotional support from members of one’s congregation and emotional support from one’s pastor did not predict focus on and venting of emotions. Implications are discussed. It is hoped that the findings will provide insights that clinicians, counselors, and religious leaders will find valuable in assessing the needs and strengths of religious individuals and in fostering their care and growth.