Religion Affiliation Research Articles

Insights into psychosocial problems and associated factors among higher education students in Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study

While there has been extensive research on well-known psychosocial problems like depression, anxiety, and stress among higher education students, emerging issues such as emotional problems, antisocial behavior, trauma experiences, and academic difficulties are not as thoroughly studied, particularly in the context of Ethiopian higher education students. These updated psychosocial problems are crucial to explore due to their potentially significant impact on students’ academic performance, personal development, and future prospects. Therefore, this study aims to explore the current psychosocial issues faced by adolescent students at Arba Minch University and identify the factors associated with them. To accomplish this objective, a survey questionnaire was distributed to a sample of 300 university students through a cross-sectional study. The survey questionnaire was designed to provide a thorough understanding of the various types of psychosocial problems experienced by the students. The findings revealed that the most prevalent psychosocial problems among higher education adolescent students were emotional problems (6.7% high/severe, 46.3% moderate), antisocial behavior (5% high/severe, 54.7% moderate), trauma experiences (7% high/severe, 23% moderate), and academic problems (8.3% high/severe, 23% moderate). The prevalence of no/low psychosocial problems was 47%, 40.3%, 69.3%, and 68.7%, respectively. Additionally, statistically significant (p < 0.05) associated factors to these psychosocial problems were identified: gender for academic problems, religion affiliation for antisocial behavior, trauma experiences, marital status for trauma experiences, living situation during holidays for emotional problems, age for emotional problems and antisocial behavior, and educational sponsorship for antisocial behavior. The study found that students who lacked a support system, such as family or friends, were more likely to experience psychosocial problems. In conclusion, psychosocial problems among adolescent students in higher education are a pressing issue that requires immediate attention. By understanding the challenges faced by these students, universities can implement effective interventions to support their mental well-being.

Does Embodying a Divine Avatar Influence Moral Decisions? An Immersive Virtual Reality Study.

The term Proteus effect refers to the changes in attitudes and behavior induced by the characteristics of an embodied virtual agent. Whether the effect can extend to the moral sphere is currently unknown. To deal with this issue, we investigated if embodying virtual agents (i.e., avatars) with different characteristics modulate people's moral standards differentially. Participants were requested to embody an avatar resembling the Christian God in His anthropomorphic appearance or a control human avatar and to perform a text-based version of incidental and instrumental dilemmas in a virtual environment. For each participant, we recorded (1) chosen options (deontological vs. utilitarian), (2) decision times, (3) postdecision feelings, and (4) physiological reactions (skin conductance response and heart rate). We found that embodying God vs. a control avatar did not change the performance in the moral dilemma task, indicating that no strong Proteus effect was at play in our experimental conditions. We interpreted this result by examining the constraints and limitations of our task, reasoning about the necessary conditions for eliciting the Proteus effect, and discussing future developments and advances in the field. Moreover, we presented compelling effects concerning dilemma type, chosen option, personality traits, and religion affiliation, thus supporting and extending literature on decision making in moral dilemmas.

The association of religion with advance care planning

Personal preferences influence end-of-life (EOL) decision-making and are commonly associated with engagement in the advance care planning process. Completing an advance directive (AD) allows individuals to formally document and legally report their EOL care preferences. This study explored how two aspects of religion—personal religious beliefs and formal religion practices—may be associated with advance care planning. A national sample of healthy adults in the United States aged 50 years and older (n = 514; 74% cisgender women) completed surveys detailing their EOL preferences, advance care planning, personal religious beliefs, and formal religion practices. Using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), we find that a higher belief in God’s role at EOL was associated with a higher preference for life-prolonging measures. Using logistic regression, those with a higher belief in God’s role at EOL had lower odds of AD completion. Multiple dimensions of religion should be considered when studying health care preferences and decision-making.

Religious coping and delinquent behaviors: Moderated mediation roles of religion affiliation and prosocial moral reasoning.

Religion has been shown to have a positive impact for developing adolescents; however, the processes underlying this relation are not well known. In his almighty prosocial theory, Anazonwu (Conceptualizing and testing almighty prosociality theory for a more peaceful world, SCOA Heritage Nigeria, 2017) proposed that the activation of learnt prosocial moral reasoning through religion enabled performance of prosocial peace behavior that will benefit society. Thus, religion coping enhances the development of prosocial reasoning which in turn propagate prosocial acts while reducing delinquent behaviors. Similarly, developmental system theory (Lerner, Developmental science, developmental systems, and contemporary theories of human development, John Wiley & Sons, 2006) assumed that in every individual three mechanisms: plasticity (potential to change), context (environment), and developmental regulation (learnable principles) interact to describe the direction of the transactions between individuals and their various embedded sociocultural context of development which will also determine other developmental outcomes. Based on these two theoretical assumptions, the present study examined whether prosocial moral reasoning (developmental regulation) was the mechanism in the negative correlation between religious coping (plasticity) and delinquent behaviors (outcome), and if religious affiliation(context) (Christianity and Islam) moderated these paths. We hypothesized that the link from prosocial moral reasoning to lower delinquent behaviors would be stronger for Muslim compared with Christian youth. These questions were tested among Nigerian adolescence, an important sample because of high interreligious and interethnic tension among youth in the country. 298 adolescents (Mean age = 15.03 years, SD = 1.76; male = 176, female = 122; 46.3% Muslim, 53.7% Christian) were sampled using questionnaires in senior secondary schools in Nigeria. Moderated mediation result shows that greater religious coping was linked with higher prosocial moral reasoning, which in turn predicted fewer delinquent behaviors. Religious coping interacted with religion affiliation to influence delinquent behavior; there was a stronger link between these two constructs for Muslim compared to Christian youth. Thus, interventions aiming to reduce youth delinquent behaviors should consider promoting prosocial moral reasoning, particularly among the various religions (i.e., Christian/Muslim) communities.

Spirituality and Influencing Factors in Parkinson's Disease: A Scoping Review.

Although the effect of spirituality in chronic disease has been discussed in recent years, little is known about spirituality and spiritual beliefs in Parkinson's disease. In this scoping review, the databases PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science were searchedand initially identified914 studies. Atotal of nine studiessatisfied the inclusion criteria. It was found age, gender, education level, emotional changes, region of onset of Parkinson's disease, severity of symptoms, quality of life, religion affiliation and acceptance of Parkinson's disease influence spirituality in people with Parkinson's disease. In this context, future studies should focus on the relationship between Parkinson's disease and spirituality.

Identity and solidarity in a pluralist society:

In his recent book Protestants (2017), historian Alec Ryrie argues that while Dietrich Bonhoeffer may have been “the bravest theologian of his generation”, the impact of his prison writings and his opaque vision of a “religionless Christianity” in a world come of age was disastrous for mainstream Protestantism in the United States in the second half of the twentieth century. Ryrie’s analysis of the trajectory of Western liberal Protestantism needs to be nuanced by a more critical and contextual reading of both cultural processes of pluralisation and Bonhoeffer’s prison writings. Still, Ryrie’s sweeping claim goes to the heart of the question about the “usefulness” of Bonhoeffer’s thought and witness for the future of Christian discipleship and engagement in an increasingly post-Christian and multi-religious world. Can Bonhoeffer’s legacy assist Christians to negotiate the delicate balance between identity as disciples of Christ within faith communities and solidarity with people of other faiths or no religion affiliation?

NIGERIA POLITICAL ARRANGEMENT: THE CHALLENGES OF ETHNO-RELIGION CONSIDERATION

In an ideal political society, what informed democratic process or governmental policies are issues that are germane to improving the fortune of the citizenry. Unlike in Nigeria where decisions and government appointment are influenced by myopic view for ethnic affiliation and religion sentiment. The role of ethnic affiliation and religion alliance in democratic arrangement and party politics in Nigeria cannot be underestimated. Voter's behavior is often determined by ethnic interest and religion sentiment. It sometimes resulted in the best candidate not being elected or picked for a leadership position. Religion and ethnic affiliation indirectly influenced the political dynamics of Nigeria. The effort to balance religion interest is a challenge to the government. The manifestation of the struggle among the ethno-religion groups was glaring during the 2023 presidential election. Sensitivity around religion interest can be attributed to the complexity in the process in governance. This view can be buttressed by the antecedent of the two major religion divides. Evidence from the activities of CAN, MURIC and others is recent. Politicians no longer consider the sacredness of churches and mosque but for political campaign. Nigeria constitution and government structure have over-emphasized the role of religion. The trend is tilting towards a dangerous part of political divides or polarization along religion line. No evidence from the constitution to affirm the religion obligation of the government, but religion affiliation is usually linked to notable political appointments and opportunity to take up leadership position. The work investigated evidence and challenges from the increasing use of religion and ethnic yardstick for choosing political leaders. The research used secondary data, such as books, journals, and other existing literature relevant to the study.

How Religious Attitudes Are Associated with Depression in Turkish Society during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Mediating Role of Meaning in Life

Religion has an important role in coping with the social and psychological problems encountered in human life. However, one topic has not been studied enough, namely that religious attitudes, which are adopting and living religious values, have positive contributions by changing the characteristics of individuals coping with problems. In this study, the indirect role of meaning in life in the association of religion with depression was examined. The current study was conducted online and was cross-sectional and quantitative, with 1571 individuals aged 18–30 in Turkey. For this purpose, scales of religious attitude, depression, and meaning in life were used. First confirmatory factor analysis, and then correlation and multiple regression analyses, were carried out to test the hypotheses using the SPSS, Amos, and Process Macro Plug-in programs. According to the test results, religious attitude has positive relations with meaning in life, and meaning in life has a negative association with depression. Therefore, it was understood that the presence of meaning in life and the search for meaning in life had mediating roles in the relations of religious attitudes with depression.

The association of religion with maternal and child health outcomes in South Asian countries.

ObjectiveTheological beliefs play an important role in cultural norms and could impact women’s prenatal and postpartum decisions in South Asia, which has a high burden of disease in children and pregnant women. The aim of this study is to identify any associations religion may have in affecting a woman’s decision-making ability, and how that in turn affects maternal and child health, at a group level in multiple South Asian countries.Study designCross-sectional study utilizing secondary data analysis.MethodsWe used Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) between 2014 and 2018 in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan. Not every country’s survey asked about religion, so we imputed these results based on Census data. We assessed maternal and child health through a composite coverage index (CCI), which accounts for family planning, attendance of a skilled attendant at birth, antenatal care, BCG vaccinations, 3 doses of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine, measles vaccine, oral rehydration therapy, and seeking care if the child has pneumonia. The relationship between religion, women’s empowerment, and CCI was assessed through linear regression models.ResultsThe sample included 57,972 mothers who had children aged 12–23 months. CCI is observed to be affected by family income, in addition to religion and country. CCI was higher in Hindus (2.8%, 95% CI: 2.4%, 3.1%) and Buddhists (2.0%, 95% CI: 1.2%, 2.9%) than Muslims. Mother’s age, education, income, decision-making autonomy, and attitude towards beatings were all related to CCI. In a model stratified by religion, age, education, and income were significant predictors of CCI for both Muslims and non-Muslims, but were more impactful among Muslims.ConclusionThough multiple imputation had to be used to fill in gaps in religion data, this study demonstrates that maternal and child health outcomes continue to be a concern in South Asia, especially for Muslim women. Given the importance of religious beliefs, utilizing a simple indicator, such as the CCI could be helpful for monitoring these outcomes and provides a tangible first step for communities to address gaps in care resulting from disparities in maternal empowerment.

Controlling civic engagement of youth spanish muslims

This paper focuses on Muslim Civil Society structures and, more specifically, on the gap between the organizations from the first (migrant) generation and the new grammars of action of new generations of Spanish Muslims. The originality of this article lies in its power to address three fundamental questions: (1) Are the umbrella organizations silencing the demands of Muslim youth?; (2) How do Muslim youth resist such representative hegemony? and; (3) What specific strategies are Muslim women currently developing to gain representation and involvement in mainstream Spanish society? We find evidence for new grammars of action defying traditional authorities and reject decontextualized, asynchronous Islam. Young women are engaging in broader and inclusive activism, inspired by religion affiliation in order to reinforce their external solidarity and engagement in mainstream political structures. By contrast, young men are calling for a new Muslim leadership to reinforce primary solidarity and concentrate more on earning religious rights. For women, religion is a vector to participation and for men, it is a form of participation.

Belongingness is a Mediating Factor Between Religious Service Attendance and Reduced Psychological Distress During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

This study aimed to test whether pre-pandemic religious service attendance relates to both lesser impact from the COVID-19 pandemic and lower levels of psychological distress among a sample of 645 American adults across nine US regions. A second aim was to test whether belongingness mediated these relationships. First, it was expected that more frequent pre-pandemic religious service attendance relates to belongingness, which mediates the religious service attendance and psychological distress association. Second, it was expected that people who felt greater belongingness also experienced less perceived impact from the pandemic. Results from a path model supported these hypotheses. This is among the first studies to provide empirical evidence for religion’s association with psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The association of religion with maternal and child health outcomes in South Asian countries

The association of religion with maternal and child health outcomes in South Asian countries

Measures of religion and spirituality in dementia: An integrative review.

IntroductionLiterature on the association of religion and spirituality (R/S) and health is growing. However, it is unclear how R/S affects outcomes and is assessed in persons with dementia (PWDs). In this integrative review, we evaluate published R/S measures and synthesize R/S findings for PWDs.MethodsWe searched five databases (ATLA Religion, CINAHL, PsychInfo, PubMed, SocIndex) and identified 14 of 1043 studies for review. We assess the studies’ information, quality, measures, and results.ResultsWe identified 17 measures for R/S: six were adapted for use with PWDs and only two were validated for PWDs; most studies reported only measures’ reliability, with Cronbach's alpha. The studies’ findings support significant positive associations between R/S and cognitive function and negative associations between R/S and depression and behavioral expressions.DiscussionThe two validated scales indicated acceptable validity with overall good reliability. Nevertheless, diverse samples and rigorous study designs are needed to improve R/S measures and to examine associations over time for PWDs.Highlights Few scales for measuring religion and spirituality (R/S) have been validated in persons with dementia (PWD); additional testing is needed.Most R/S measures only reported scale reliability with Cronbach's alpha.Studies supported positive associations between R/S and health yet few studies exist. conducted.Only one spiritual intervention, spiritual reminiscence, was found for PWD.More rigorous R/S studies are needed to examine health outcomes in dementia.

The Association of Religion and Spirituality with Obesity and Weight Change in the USA: A Large-Scale Cohort Study.

The association between religion, spirituality, and body weight is controversial, given the methodological limitations of existing studies. Using the Nurses' Health Study II cohort, follow-up occurred from 2001 to 2015, with up to 35,547 participants assessed for the religious or spiritual coping and religious service attendance analyses. Cox regression and generalized estimating equations evaluated associations with obesity and weight change, respectively. Religious or spiritual coping and religious service attendance had little evidence of an association with obesity. Compared with not using religious or spiritual coping at all, the fully adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) were minimally different across categories: a little bit (HR = 1.05, 95% CI: 0.92-1.18), a medium amount (HR = 1.09, 95% CI: 0.96-1.24), and a lot (HR = 1.10; 95% CI: 0.96-1.25) (Ptrend = 0.17). Compared with participants who never or almost never attend religious meetings or services, there was little evidence of an association between those attending less than once/month (HR = 1.08, 95% CI: 0.97-1.10), 1-3 times/month (HR = 1.01, 95% CI: 0.90-1.13), once/week (HR = 0.92, 95% CI: 0.83-1.02), and more than once/week (HR = 0.94, 95% CI: 0.82-1.07) (Ptrend = 0.06). Findings were similar for weight change. There was no significant association between religious or spiritual coping, religious service attendance, obesity, and weight change. While religion and spirituality are prominent in American society, they are not important psychosocial factors influencing body weight in this sample.

Особливості церковно-релігійної політики російського самодержавства у Подільському регіоні наприкінці XVIII – на початку 30‑х рр. ХІХ століття

The work analyzes the peculiarities of the political activity of the Russian autocracy concerning the representatives of confessional and religious communities in Podillya at the end of XVIII – at the beginning of the 30s of the XIX century. The research methodology is based on the principles of scientificity, objectivity and historicism, and involves the use of general scientific methods (internal critique of sources, analysis, synthesis, generalization). The scientific novelty consists of the formation of the complex vision of implementation of religious politics of autocracy toward the representatives of non-Orthodox clergy and believers of Podillya. The analysis of legislative acts, incorporation and corporate governance documents that regulated the activities of religious communities was conducted. Based on the historical, ideological and political aspects of this policy, as well as the religious views of monarchs (on confessional and religious communities), and the status of the state religion (Orthodoxy), the main aspects of church and religious policy of the autocracy in Podillya were clarified. Conclusions.It is defined that the church-religious politics of the Russian government toward the confessional communities of the Podillya governorate were executed to get control over the confessional communities of the region and their full subordination to the autocratic government. The legal basis of religious and confessional policy was a series of imperial decrees, statutory documents and orders that defined and coordinated the activities of religious and confessional organizations. Their publications were based on the legal and ideological substantiation of the religious and confessional policy of the autocracy throughout the Right-Bank Ukraine and Podillya in particular. The implementation of the given policy led to the changes in the confessional hierarchy of the Podillya governorate; restrictions of activities and the influence of the Roman Catholic and Greek-Catholic denominations of the faithful of the region. As a result, it was the change of religion and confessional affiliation of the population of the region. Orthodoxy was recognized as the main religion by the government in the region, which depended entirely on secular authorities, the will of the emperor, and became the basis for the subordination of the Orthodox population of the region to the policy of the Russian state.

Do Religion and Spirituality Make a Contribution to the Public Good? The Association of Religion and Spirituality with Volunteering

Involvement in religious communities has long been associated with a variety of contributions to the public good such as volunteering. However, the patterns of religiosity are complex in Australia, with many indicating ‘no religion’ and with a changing balance in the proportions attending Evangelical and Pentecostal churches compared with the mainstream churches. Approximately one quarter of the adult population describes themselves as ‘spiritual but not religious’. Based on a national survey conducted in 2016, the hours of volunteering among these diverse religious groups in the Australian community was examined. Overall, it was found that religious attenders contributed more than non-attenders to the public good through volunteering and that Evangelicals and Pentecostals contributed most, albeit doing much of their volunteering through their own religious organisations. It was found that much volunteering in religious organisations is conducted for the public good rather than for the religious organisations themselves.

Newspapers and Dynamics of Religious Communication: The Test Case of Sufi News

Religion and the print media are two powerful motivators and sources of meaning, information and culture, and their relationship has been there seen since 19th century with the advent of industrial revolution. This research aims to analyze the portrayal of Sufism in the print media by investigating features of Sufi news stories of Urdu newspapers. For this purpose, this study applied qualitative approach to investigate news writings of national newspapers published from the city of saints, Multan. To provide a comprehensive overview, this study has analyzed news stories printed on the occasions of death anniversaries of prolific Sufi saints in four leading newspapers, Jang, Nawa-i-Waqt, Express and Khabrain, to contribute to the contemporary studies of religion and the print media. Probing the dynamics of religious communication, the study found the holy sketch of Sufi saints that portrayed them as great Muslim and spiritual mentors, and a heart of love and religious harmony. Their path and ideologies were recognized as the sources of inspiration for eternal success. The newspaper writings stated that Sufis are the treasures of the divine grace, wisdom and spiritual knowledge whose teachings address the love of God and Prophet Muhammad (SAW), the concept of piety, humbleness, pardon, the uncertainty of the world, and optimism. In this background, this research, with its results, is an important addition for a better understanding of the association of religion and media.

The paradox of change: Religion and fertility decline in South Korea

The scholarship on the association of religion and fertility has paid relatively little attention to East Asia, a region that has experienced rapid fertility declines. South Korea is an important setting to study this association as its fertility decreased

Does membership in religious brotherhood affect tax morale: evidence from Senegal

Many social scientists consider religiosity and religious identity as a fundamental factor facilitating tax compliance and thus tax morale. However, previous studies have so far mostly focused on western countries and few of them have examined the relationship between religion affiliation and tax morale in African countries. In this paper we address this issue by testing the causal effect of membership in two main Senegalese Islamic religion brotherhoods (Muridya and Tidjanyya) in tax morale. Using a 2SLS instrumental Variable strategy, the results show that tax morale is positively affected by membership in Mouridya brotherhood and negatively affected by membership in Tidjanyya. In contrast of Muslim member belonging in brotherhoods, the other Muslims present lower level of tax morale. The causal effects we identify raise the question of the channels by which membership affect the degree of tax morale.

Making sense of religion: a qualitative inquiry into students’ conceptions of religion in two Chinese regions

ABSTRACT The way religion is taught in Chinese schools is drawing attention, as challenges arise associated with the resurgence of various religious traditions in contemporary Chinese society. Existing research has revealed that the decades-long institutional separation of religion and education in China has had a complex effect on Chinese students’ understanding of religion. Efforts have been made to understand how Chinese textbooks present religion, but little is known about how students form their own perspectives on religion. Drawing on data collected in two geographical regions of China, this study explores how students conceive the meaning and role of religion. The findings reveal several key themes in the students’ understanding of religion, on topics including the association of religion with superstition, the relationship between religion and science, and the role of religion in modern society. The findings also have implications for how the Chinese school curriculum might be reformed in regard to the teaching of religion.