Abstract
Religion and its practice have been found to significantly influence marital satisfaction and quality. However, there is a paucity of research that has explored these relationships among married adults living in the Caribbean and Latin America. This study examines the influence of prayer and family worship on relationship satisfaction, emotional attunement, conflict resolution and belief in traditional gender roles among Christian Caribbean and Latin American married adults. Data were gathered from 3997 Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) adults in the Caribbean and Latin America. Hierarchical multiple regression (HMR) analyses were conducted to evaluate the associations between religious practices (personal prayer, family worship, church attendance, and bible study) and relationship outcomes (relationship satisfaction, emotional attunement, conflict resolution, beliefs in traditional roles) independent of gender and level of education. The results suggest that married adults who spend more time in habitual prayer and at least weekly family worship experience higher levels of relationship satisfaction, emotional attunement and satisfaction with how conflicts were resolved. Additionally, married adults who were more likely to have a daily prayer life also reported having more egalitarian beliefs about roles and responsibilities in their relationships. These findings highlight the significant influence prayer and family worship have on relationship satisfaction and functioning.
Highlights
Various religious practices have been shown to positively influence marital satisfaction and quality (Mahoney 2010; Mahoney and Cano 2014; Mahoney et al 2001)
After running Hierarchical multiple regression (HMR) models to determine the contribution of demographic, sociodemographic and religious practice variables the final model revealed that both time spent in personal prayer (M = 4.11; SD = 0.844; b = 1.270, SEb = 0.162, β = 0.16, p < 0.001) and family worship (M = 2.11; SD = 0.88; b = 0.836, SEb = 0.155, β = 0.11, p < 0.001) were significantly related to relationship satisfaction independent of gender and level of education
More time spent in personal prayer as well as engaging in family worship more often were linked with higher levels of relationship satisfaction
Summary
Various religious practices have been shown to positively influence marital satisfaction and quality (Mahoney 2010; Mahoney and Cano 2014; Mahoney et al 2001) Religious practices such as prayer and church attendance have consistently been found to play a significant role in positive couple functioning (Beach et al 2011; Fincham et al 2008; Mahoney 2010). There continues to be a paucity of research that explores these variables among black and Latino populations, outside of the United States This is salient due to the prominent role religion has in many Caribbean and Latin American families (Roopnarine and Gielen 2005). With numerous stressors continuing to challenge couple relationships within and outside of the United
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