Effect of gender and levels of religiosity on prosocial behaviour of youth

Abstract

Religious traditions tend to promote prosocial behaviours among their followers. All major religions emphasise moral behaviour and explicitly teach prosociality as a virtue. Previous studies have shown support for the relationship between religion and volunteerism, helping others and youth's positive social behaviour. The present study aimed to explore the effect of gender, levels of religiosity and their interaction on the prosocial behaviour of a sample of youth. The sample comprised 90 (45 male, 45 female) youths chosen from a city. Adults' Prosocialness Scale (Capara et al., 2005), Religious Commitment Inventory (Worthington et al., 2003), and Islamic Religiosity Attitude (Marva, 2010) were administered for data collection. Descriptive statistics and two-way ANOVA were used for statistical analysis. Results revealed a statistically significant main effect for different levels of religiosity on prosocial behaviour. In contrast, the main effect of gender and interaction of gender and levels of religiosity on prosocial behaviour was not found significant. Findings underline the importance of religiosity in enhancing prosocial behaviour and positive psychosocial development of individuals, especially youth.