Different Dimensions Of Religiosity Research Articles

Sensory processing sensitivity is associated with religiosity and spirituality

Sensory processing sensitivity (SPS) has recently been gaining public as well as scientific interest. Evidence is lacking on the relationship between SPS and different dimensions of religiosity and spirituality (R/S). We investigated the associations between SPS and R/S in the Czech Republic. Two samples of Czech adults (N1 = 1406; 48.1 ± 16.4 years; 49.4% women, N2 = 1494; 50.7 ± 15.8 years; 44.1% women) participated in the online survey. We measured SPS, religious attendance, religiosity, spirituality, images of God, negative religious coping (NRC) and religious conspiracy theories (RCT). Results of binary logistic regression found SPS significantly associated with religiosity, spirituality, and NRC with odds ratios (ORs) of 1.38 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.22–1.56), 1.61 (95% CI 1.33–1.96) and 1.25 (95% CI 1.02–1.52), respectively. Higher SPS indicated a greater likelihood of perceiving God as ever-present, fatherly, forgiving, gentle, loving, motherly, punishing, just, and absolute, with ORs ranging from 1.14 to 1.26. No significant association was found between SPS and RCT. Results revealed associations between SPS and various aspects of R/S. The study highlights the relevance of considering SPS in clinical contexts involving religious and spiritual issues. Further research might be aimed at comparing the results with countries with different religious backgrounds, or at exploring the links with other variables that may play a role in these relationships.

LONG-TERM GENDERED PATHWAYS OF RELIGIOUS INVOLVEMENT POST WIDOWHOOD

Abstract Widowhood is associated with decreased emotional well-being, particularly increased depression. Prior research suggests that religiosity may help improve mental health among widowed individuals. However, longitudinal studies exploring the role of religiosity on emotional well-being among widowed older adults is lacking, as are studies which examine different dimensions of religiosity. This longitudinal study analyzed data from the 2006-2018 waves of the nationally representative Health and Retirement Study (HRS). Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between widowhood and depression as well as the role of religiosity as a moderator of this association. Analysis was stratified by gender to further explore these interactions. Results show that men and women show similar levels of depression at widowhood, but men are far less likely to be depressed prior to widowhood. Women also show a better recovery pattern over time post-widowhood. Furthermore, religiosity (particularly attending church) is an effective way of coping with widowhood and mitigating depression for both genders. However, men are significantly less religious than women. This study highlights the long-term effects of widowhood on depressive symptomology among older adults. Practical implications of this study include intervention development around increased screening and treatment for depression for widowed older adults (in particular, for widowers) as well as connecting this vulnerable population with resources. These findings may also inform program outreach (such as hospice bereavement services) that aim to facilitate healthy grieving among widowed older adults.

Religiosity and Substance Use Among Youth in Southeast Europe: The Importance of God as the Strongest Protective Religious Dimension

Using a large sample of youth ( N = 10,398) from 10 countries of Southeast Europe, the present study analyzed the effects of different dimensions of religiosity on various types of substance use across three different religions. The results, based on risk ratios and binary logistic regression, indicated that belief in the importance of God is generally a much stronger protective factor against substance use than church attendance or personal prayer. At the level of the entire sample, risk ratios revealed that finding God to be highly important reduced the likelihood of using hard drugs by as much as 69% and the likelihood of using soft drugs by 74%. In the case of alcohol use, the effect was weaker and less robust. Overall, the results of this study results point to the high relative importance of belief in God as a factor strengthening an individual’s ability to refrain from substance use.

Religiosity, physical and functional health in older people in Chile.

To establish the association between different dimensions of religiosity - organizational, non-organizational and intrinsic - and physical and functional health indicators in older people in Chile. Data from the Fifth Survey on Quality of Life in Old Age 2019 were used. Descriptive and explanatory analyses were performed using logistic, linear and multinomial regression models, with dependent variables being self-perception of health, functional dependence, number of chronic diseases and perception of health compared with other people of the same age. As predictors, indicators of the three dimensions of religiosity (DUREL Scale) were included, controlling for the MOS-SS Social Support Scale, Apgar Family Functioning Scale, educational level, gender, age, and living with a partner. Almost a third of older Chileans attend religious services frequently, and half of them pray frequently. On a range of 1 to 5, the mean intrinsic religiosity is 3.94. 46% perceive their health to be good/very good and about half perceive their health as better than their peers. On 0 to 5, the mean number of chronic diseases is 1.69. 6% are classified as functionally dependent. The only significant relationship observed was between religious attendance and a lower probability of presenting functional dependency; on the other hand, praying increases such probabilities and a relationship between attendance and a better perception of health compared with other people of the same age. Organisational religiosity is a psychosocial resource that is positively associated with the process of successful aging.

What Shapes Attitudes Toward Homosexuality among European Muslims? The Role of Religiosity and Destination Hostility

Muslim migrants and their descendants in Western Europe have consistently been shown to hold more negative attitudes toward homosexuality, the more religious they are. In this article, we go beyond this mono-dimensional view of religiosity and develop a theoretical framework that combines (a) the role of different dimensions of religiosity in anchoring cultural attitudes and (b) the potential impact of destination hostility and discrimination on the retention of cultural attitudes toward homosexuality among Muslim migrants in Western Europe. For the analysis, we use eight rounds of the European Social Survey, enriched with country-level data. Findings indicate that Muslim migrants’ mosque attendance, as a dimension of religiosity, has the negative effect that was expected. Particularly, Muslims who grew up in Western Europe are negative about homosexuality if they attended mosque regularly, whereas among first-generation Muslim migrants, origin-country norms are a strong predictor of attitudes toward homosexuality. In addition, we find that perceived group discrimination drives the maintenance of negative attitudes toward homosexuality, especially among mosque attendees. These results imply that the development of more liberal attitudes among European Muslims is held back by a combination of socialization in conservative religious communities and hostility from host-country populations.

The multifaceted relationship between individual religiosity and attitudes toward immigration in contemporary Italy

When analyzing the relationship between individual religiosity and attitudes toward immigration, empirical research often leads to contrasting findings. By focusing on contemporary Italy, our contribution aims to provide evidence of two opposite effects that religiosity can exert on attitudes toward immigration. On the one hand, belonging to a religious community is expected to reinforce a social identity, leading to negative attitudes toward outgroups. On the other hand, religious commitment implies adhering to religious teachings which promote altruistic values, such as the acceptance of others. Since the two hypotheses pertain to different dimensions of religiosity, we propose to use a typology combining affiliation and church attendance, so that the two hypotheses can be tested as complementary. The first evidence we provide to support the hypotheses analyzes parallel survey data coming from the European Social Survey (ESS), the European Values Study (EVS), and the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP). In particular, we point out that non-religious and highly religious people show more positive attitudes toward immigration than affiliated individuals with low religious commitment. Moreover, data from the 2018 ISSP module “Religion IV”, which includes more specific measures of religious identity and commitment, lend further support to our expectations.

Immigrants\u2019 Religious Transmission in Southern Europe: Reaction or Assimilation? Evidence from Italy

In recent decades, scholars have been increasingly interested in analysing immigrants’ religiosity in Europe. In this article, we provide evidence about how the patterns of religious transmission are shaped by religious characteristics of both the origin and receiving contexts. We do so by focusing on Italy, which is both an almost homogeneously Catholic country and a fairly recent immigration destination, and by analysing three different dimensions of religiosity: service attendance, prayer and importance of religion. By relying on the “Social conditions and integration of foreign citizens” survey (ISTAT, 2011–2012), we fill an important theoretical and geographical gap by analysing differences in religiosity between parents and children. We claim that immigrant groups who share many characteristics with the natives tend to assimilate by adopting the same patterns of transmission (for example, Romanians in Italy). In contrast, immigrants who come from very different religious contexts, such as the Muslim Moroccan group, strongly react to this diversity by emphasising the transmission of their own religiosity. If, instead, immigrants come from a very secular country, such as Albania, they also tend to replicate this feature in the receiving countries, thus progressively weakening their religiosity and also their denominational differences. Overall, it is the interplay between origin and destination context which matters the most in shaping the patterns of religious transmission.

Religiosity and Suicide: A Large-Scale International and Individual Analysis Considering the Effects of Different Religious Beliefs.

In a cohort of 82,898 participants from 60 countries, this study examined attitudes towards suicide among five religions (Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and other non-specific religions), while simultaneously considering two different dimensions of religiosity: subjective religiosity and religious practices. At the national level, religiosity was an important negative predictor variable for suicide rates and an important positive predictor variable for negative attitudes towards suicide. At the individual level, however, attitudes towards suicide were found to vary significantly across the different religions. The findings emphasize the importance of considering religion perspectives and religiosity, along with its practices and subjective dimensions, in prevention and attention programmes to suicidal behaviour.

Influence of religiosity on medical students’ mental health

Abstract: Introduction: Mental health was included as one of the top ten health indicators and studies have shown it is related to religiosity and spirituality (R/S). Objective: The aim of the present study is to evaluate whether the degree of R/S of medical students influences anxiety and depression disorders during undergraduate school. Method: This study was carried out with a convenience non-probabilistic sample, consisting of 298 students. The Duke Religiosity Index in Brazilian Portuguese (P-DUREL) was used in questionnaire form, whereas, to map depression, anxiety and stress, DASS-21 was applied. Results: It was demonstrated that the different dimensions of religiosity have no association with the students’ emotional disorders, anxiety and stress. Conclusions: It is possible to propose recommendations for future research, so that the results can be used in meta-analysis studies. Studies that did not show a significant association between the variables cannot be neglected, so that the positive and negative dimensions of the association between R/S and mental health can be investigated.

Religiosity and Subjective Well-Being among Older Adults: A Systematic Review

Purpose: Religiosity acts as a protective agent against the trajectories of ill-being in the later stage of life. The current systematic review aimed to identify and critically evaluate available literature regarding the association between religiosity and subjective well-being. Methodology: Studies were sourced from Google Scholar, Science Direct and Pubmed, published between 2011 and 2017. The eligibility criteria for the selected articles was: subjective well-being as an outcome variable, participants aged 60 and above, studies having cross-sectional/comparative, cohort/longitudinal, qualitative, or quantitative research designs, and published in the English language. Findings: After the screening and quality assessment through STROBE and SIGN checklists, a synthesis of 7 out of 77 articles were accumulated. Equivocal patterns of association were observed between religiosity and subjective well-being. It was also found that different dimensions of religiosity exerted positive and negative influences on the subjective well-being of the older adults. Implications: Therefore, focus on the empirical connections between religiosity and subjective well-being will enhance professionals’ knowledge regarding the literature gaps and underlying pathways. It also provides the direction for future studies.

Influence of religiosity on medical students’ mental health

Abstract: Introduction: Mental health was included as one of the top ten health indicators and studies have shown it is related to religiosity and spirituality (R/S). Objective: The aim of the present study is to evaluate whether the degree of R/S of medical students influences anxiety and depression disorders during undergraduate school. Method: This study was carried out with a convenience non-probabilistic sample, consisting of 298 students. The Duke Religiosity Index in Brazilian Portuguese (P-DUREL) was used in questionnaire form, whereas, to map depression, anxiety and stress, DASS-21 was applied. Results: It was demonstrated that the different dimensions of religiosity have no association with the students’ emotional disorders, anxiety and stress. Conclusions: It is possible to propose recommendations for future research, so that the results can be used in meta-analysis studies. Studies that did not show a significant association between the variables cannot be neglected, so that the positive and negative dimensions of the association between R/S and mental health can be investigated.

Multidimensional Profiles of Religiosity Among Grandparents, Parents, and Grandchildren

Studies have frequently treated different measures of religiosity as cumulative components on a single scale of religiosity ranging in value from high to low, despite the broad consensus that religiosity is multidimensional in nature. Multidimensional typologies can be helpful not only in properly assessing and measuring religiosity in an increasingly diverse population, but could also help identify specific religious and spiritual differences within seemingly similar groups. The different dimensions of religiosity also allow us to classify populations according to their religious characteristics rather than according to social outcomes in relation to their religiosity. We apply latent class analysis and multiple group latent class analysis to multigenerational data from the Longitudinal Study of Generations (N= 1,726) to examine (1) what religiosity profiles exist across three generations (grandparents, parents, and grandchildren), and (2) how the patterns of religiosity profiles are the same or different across three generations. Results of the latent class analysis show that four religiosity subgroups are identified in the three generations: strongly religious, weakly religious, religious but not literalists, literalists but not religious. In addition, results of the multigroup latent class analysis show that the four religiosity subgroups are structurally the same across three generation. Our findings complement previous studies that show religiosity is a multidimensional construct, and demonstrate that religiosity class memberships are invariant across three generations. Furthermore, given that one in four U.S. adults consider themselves “spiritual but not religious” or “religious but not spiritual”, our findings confirm similar patterns of religiosity subgroups in three generations.

Why are Women More Religious than Men? Do Risk Preferences and Genetic Risk Predispositions Explain the Gender Gap?

Risk preference theory argues that the gender gap in religiosity is caused by greater female risk aversion. Although widely debated, risk preference theory has been inadequately tested. Our study tests the theory directly with phenotypic and genetic risk preferences in three dimensions-general, impulsive, and sensation-seeking risk. Moreover, we examine whether the effect of different dimension of risk preference on the gender gap varies across different dimensions of religiosity. We find that general and impulsive risk preferences do not explain gender differences in religiosity, whereas sensation-seeking risk preference makes the gender gap in self-assessed religiousness and church attendance insignificant, but not belief in God, prayer, or importance of religion. Genetic risk preferences do not remove any of the gender gaps in religiosity, suggesting that the causal order is not from risk preference to religiosity. Evidence suggests that risk preferences are not a strong predictor for gender differences in religiosity.

‘Generic’ Versus ‘Mature’ Measures Of Christian Religiosity: Comparing Two Quantitative Measures of Religiosity

A wide range of survey-based tools has been developed to measure religiosity, although the most commonly applied approaches tend to focus on ‘generic’ interpretations of religiosity for practical and generalising reasons. However, these generic approaches have not always been satisfactory due to the lack of variation in responses and the potential for poor correlation between the generic religiosity measure and the overall impact of faith in respondents’ lives, particularly in less secular contexts. This led us to explore whether there is a difference between measuring religiosity using a ‘generic’ versus a ‘mature’ approach using 227 Christian respondents on Bantayan Island, the Philippines. The findings suggest that overall religiosity among our respondents was high for both measures, that the measures are strongly correlated, and that there was no statistically significant difference between the scores for each scale; however, there was evidence to suggest that the two scales are examining different dimensions of religiosity. When correlating the two religiosity scores to other scales on our survey, there was no statistically significant difference among the correlations when using the mature or generic measure of religiosity. This has important implications for mental health and care research methodologies, for which we highlight the importance of using contextually appropriate measures that incorporate various dimensions of religiosity.

How Religiosity Shapes Rejection of Homosexuality Across the Globe

ABSTRACTThis study investigates to what extent different dimensions of religiosity are differentially related to rejection of homosexuality in countries around the world and, moreover, to what extent these relationships can be explained by particular mediators: authoritarianism and traditional gender beliefs. The theoretical framework includes in particular socialization and integration theories. Hypotheses are tested by employing multilevel models, using data from the World Values Survey, covering 55 countries around the world for the period 2010–2014. The results indicate that every dimension of religiosity has a positive relationship with rejection of homosexuality, rejecting some of our hypotheses: those who adhere to any denomination more often attend religious services and have stronger religious particularistic beliefs, or those who are more religiously salient do reject homosexuality more strongly. Sobel tests and bootstrapping procedures indicate that the relationships between the dimensions of religiosity and rejection of homosexuality are partially explained by authoritarianism and traditional gender beliefs.

Correlates of waterpipe smoking among Iranian university students and the role of religiosity.

Waterpipe smoking among youth and adolescents in Iran has gained in popularity. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between waterpipe smoking and different dimensions of religiosity in a sample of students attending two major universities in South East Iran. A total of 682 students completed a waterpipe and cigarette smoking questionnaire along with the Duke University Religion Index. The lifetime prevalence of dual cigarette and waterpipe use was 48.3%, with prevalence of current use (within the last 30 days) of 24.9%. The proportions of lifetime and current waterpipe-only users were 27.0% and 18.8%, respectively. Students who participated more often in private religious activities were less likely to report engaging in waterpipe smoking (odds ratio: 0.82; 95% confidence interval: 0.71-0.98). A higher level of attendance of religious services was negatively associated with dual cigarette and waterpipe smoking (odds ratio: 0.71; 95% confidence interval: 0.54-0.93). Waterpipe-only use was significantly higher among males, students who had lower grade point averages, those who reported having a close friend or a family member who was a waterpipe smoker. To conclude, it is possible that religious observance may have a protective role in lowering waterpipe usage among Iranian university students.

Religiosity, gender, and wage: the differentiated impact of private prayer in Canada

Purpose– Does religiosity impact wages differently for males and females? Does the impact on wage of different dimensions of religiosity, namely the importance of religion, the frequency of religious practice with others and individually, differ for men and women? The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approach– Using the Canadian Ethnic Diversity Survey, made public in 2004, this paper investigates whether there are evidences for a gender difference in the impact of religiosity on wage. A Mincerean wage regression is estimated using both multiple linear regression and Heckit.Findings– Religious females are found to receive a premium over their labour earnings, through the frequency of private-prayer while the same dimension of religiosity penalizes males’ mean wage. The by-gender impact slightly widens for the subsample of employees, while it diminishes for the self-employed.Research limitations/implications– Making use of the most comprehensive data set available and standard methodology, the paper creates stylized facts that are of interest to the scholars of a multiplicity of disciplines.Practical implications– It advances the body of knowledge about the impact of religiosity on productivity and whether it has a by-gender component.Social implications– The research also informs policy-makers in their decision about the appropriate level of accommodation of religiosity in the workplace.Originality/value– The present work is the first research paper examining the by-gender impact of different dimensions of religiosity on productivity thereby wage.

The association between belief in God and fertility desires in Slovenia and the Czech Republic.

Research on the association between religiosity and fertility-and, particularly, on the effects of secularization on fertility desires and outcomes-has been concerned primarily with mechanisms that are fundamentally institutional and are embedded in formal religious structures. Supplementary explanations focused on noninstitutional dimensions of religiosity have never been tested. Conventional ordinary least-squares regression was used to test the association between belief in God (i.e., a personal God or some sort of life force) and fertility desires among 2,251 women aged 18-45 in Slovenia and 951 women aged 15-44 in the Czech Republic who participated in the European Family and Fertility Survey in the mid-1990s. In both samples, substantial proportions of women either were nonbelievers or believed in God but were not institutionally religious. Belief in God was independently associated with fertility desires even in analyses controlling for self-reported religiosity. Women who believed in a personal God wanted approximately 0.2 more children, and those who believed in a life force wanted approximately 0.1 more children, than nonbelievers. Results were similar across several alternative measures of religiosity. At least some of the connection between religiosity and fertility apparently is attributable to metaphysical beliefs. Future research on the effect of secularization on fertility decline should investigate the potentially distinct effects of different dimensions of religiosity.

Directions of Change in Japanese Religiosity

Assertions about ‘secularisation’ in Japan are dependent on the accuracy of attempts to measure religiosity. Most indices try to measure observable religious practices, some also trying to assess levels of belief, but very few studies have attempted to measure the prevalence of religious experience. Measurements in each of these dimensions is problematic to some extent, so it is very difficult to know whether or not Japanese religiosity overall is increasing, declining or staying about the same, albeit with some surface changes. It is probably premature to assert too confidently that there is secularisation in Japan, or that religion is increasing or staying the same. This paper reviews some of the different dimensions of religiosity that need to be considered when trying to measure changes in religious behaviour. Statistics on alleged beliefs or observable practices need to be understood from the perspective of the motivations and attitudes behind them. In many cases, they are best understood in the perspective of the life-cycle, whereby expressions of religiosity change at different stages in a person’s life and are influenced by a variety of personal factors that affect whether or not an individual might participate in certain forms of religious practices.

Spirituality in schizophrenic diseases

The aim of this study was to investigate different dimensions of religiosity and spirituality among schizophrenic inpatients (F 2x) compared to addiction patients (F 10.2, F 19.2) and to healthy controls. In addition the dimensions of religious and spiritual well-being were examined and related to different parameters of mental illness. The group of schizophrenic patients (n = 39) was compared to a group of addiction patients (n = 33) and a healthy control group (n = 38) by means of the multidimensional inventory for religious/spiritual well-being (MI-RSWB). Additionally, dimensions of RSWB were related to the Beck depression inventory (BDI) and the brief symptom inventory (BSI) in the group of schizophrenic patients. The group of schizophrenic patients did not differ from the addiction patients or from the healthy controls in the RSWB dimensions, except for the hope transcendent sub-dimension. Furthermore, dimensions of RSWB turned out to be negatively correlated with the severity of psychiatric symptoms (BDI and BSI). As assumed a positive relationship between RSWB and subjective well-being can be confirmed also for the group of schizophrenic patients. Existentially oriented dimensions such as hope and forgiveness might be specifically relevant for the group of schizophrenics.