Abstract
This ex post facto study aims to investigate the influence of religious practice on the types of reaction to situations of offence. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to evaluate the relationship between religious practice and the attitudes towards offenders. The study was carried out with adolescents and young people of both sexes. The sample comprised 673 male and female, with an average age of 18.28 and standard desviation of 1.21. As regards the religion that they practiced: 555 were catholic (82.5%) 39 were evangelical (5.8%) and others 79 (11.7%). To assess the level of religious practice, a grid with items containing the frequency of religious practice was prepared, taking into account the person’s self perception. The second instrument used was the Attitudes Towards Offenders Questionnaire (ATOQ). This instrument consists of seven scales, grouped into three factors: passive, aggressive and prosocial behavior, corresponding to the different responses to situations of offence: submission, denial, vengeance, resentment, hostility, claim for an explanation and forgiveness. The result of MANOVA of the tree factors of ATOQ, according to religious practice (practitioner, occasional practitioner and not practitioner), stated a significant difference. When analyzing the contrasts we can see that practitioners are less aggressive with respect to occasional practitioners and non practitioners. As regards the prosocial factor, the only significant contrast is shown in practitioners, who have a higher average of prosocial attitudes compared to non-practitioners.
Highlights
The study of values in adolescents and young people is extremely important for the society in which we live and the current education, as well as reactions and attitudes in situations of violence and grievance experienced in interpersonal relationships and bonds
Analyzing the univariate F, we note that the differences in aggressive attitudes towards offenders are significant (F = 22.44 p = 0.0001) in relation to religious practice, as well as prosocial attitudes (F = 8.203 p = .0001)
Analyzing the contrasts among the three subsamples we found that as for the aggressive factor it is significant that: practitioners are less aggressive than occasional practitioners (p = 0.0001) and non-practitioners (p = 0.0001)
Summary
The study of values in adolescents and young people is extremely important for the society in which we live and the current education, as well as reactions and attitudes in situations of violence and grievance experienced in interpersonal relationships and bonds This is when the study of attitudes and reactions involving teenagers and young people with this kind of hostile and offensive situations is utterly important in order to identify the variables that influence the types of response; since late adolescence and, mostly youth, are stages of special significance for the development of moral and religious consciousness because people adopt definite moral and religious positions and many reach the highest level of moral development (Kohlberg, 1975). This work has the purpose of investigating which the influence of religious practice is on the types of reaction to situations of offence, so as to determine if religious practice fosters prosocial actions and if it diminishs other types of more undesirable reactions such as the aggressive one
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