Religiosity and Family Values: Correlates of God-Image in a Protestant Sample

Abstract

Religiosity is a multidimensional variable that can be measured in a number of ways, including religious behavior and conscious belief. Several studies have used measures of participants' images of God to operationalize the preconscious imagery that is theorized to be associated with the latter. A. Greeley, using General Social Survey (GSS) data, has examined the relationship between God-image and numerous social attitude variables. In a similar vein, the present study asks how measures of religiosity associate with progressive or traditional stances toward family life. Secondary analysis was performed on a dataset which included measures of God-image, religious behavior, family progressivism, and family traditionalism that were administered to a national sample of 523 Protestant Christians. The findings indicate that God-image and religious behavior are both significantly associated with the family values measures, and are relatively independent of each other. There is some question, however, as to the relative utility of each of the four God-image items. Implications for further research are discussed.