External Religiosity Research Articles

Religiosity as a factor of emotional well-being of the Russian youth (on the example of Orthodox and Muslims)

Currently, the studies on religiosity are becoming more and more popular and relevant, and the terminology “spirituality” is acquiring its original etymological meaning. There is a tendency of interest in spiritual development on the part of young people who choose the concept of spirituality as the basis of their personal development. The article presents the results of an analysis of the relationship between coping strategies, stress levels and religious orientation among young people living in Russia. 104 respondents took part in the study: 52 men and 52 women between the ages from 18 to 35 years. To determine coping strategies, the author uses the Russian-language adaptation of the COPE questionnaire developed by K. Carver, M. Scheyer and J. Weintraub and adapted by T.O. Gordeeva, E.N. Osin and E.A. Rasskazova. To measure religious orientation, the G. Allport and D. Ross Scale of Religious Orientation was used, the type of religious coping was assessed using the B-RCOPE short questionnaire of religious coping. The analysis of the study results confirmed our hypothesis that coping strategies are closely related to stress levels: Active coping strategies help reduce stress levels, while avoidant coping behavior correlates with high stress levels. In addition, the study showed that religious orientation and the type of religious coping influence the choice of coping strategies. Participants with an internal religious orientation and positive religious coping were more likely to have active coping strategies, while external religiosity and negative coping were associated with avoidance and passive behavior. This indicates that religiosity can play an important role in choosing ways to cope with stress among young people living in Russia. It has been revealed that it is religious coping that they use most often.Hypothesis: The present study serves to confirm the assumption that religiosity is one of the significant factors of the emotional well-being of the Russian youth.

Religiosity and Attitudes: A Study of Indonesian Islamic Primary School Students

The integration of religious learning significantly shapes students' educational experiences and character development. This study explores specific dimensions of religiosity in the attitudes of Islamic primary school students in Indonesia, focusing on awareness, initiative, and altruism. Using a qualitative design with a grounded theory approach, the research was conducted in 64 classes from grades 1 to 6, involving 1,920 students. Instruments included a guidebook of students' daily worship activities and teacher observations. Data were analyzed using NVivo 14 and Crosstab analysis. The findings reveal that students' external religiosity, influenced by their environment and personal motivation, leads to internal religiosity characterized by conscientiousness, initiative, and altruism. Conscientiousness reflects adherence to religious norms, initiative is shown through disciplined and pious actions, and altruism manifests in helping others based on religious teachings. The study concludes that the development of students' religiosity dimensions results from disciplined and continuous training supported by teachers and parents. The findings highlight the importance of ongoing attention and guidance in fostering altruistic attitudes. These insights have implications for educators, policymakers, and parents, emphasizing the need for comprehensive religious education that promotes ethical behavior and social responsibility. Future research should explore the long-term effects of religious education on moral and social development, its impact across diverse backgrounds, and the role of digital platforms in enhancing religious education.

The connection between religiosity and psychological stability among Muslims in Russian megacities

The article presents the results of an analysis of the relationship between external and internal religiosity, religious practice and psychological stability among Muslims living in Russian megacities. The study involved 87 respondents: 12 men and 75 women aged from 16 to 70 years. To determine the level of external and internal religiosity, the Mussarat Jaben Khan scale of Muslim religiosity was used (Khan, 2014). To measure psychological stability, the method of diagnosing “The dominant state” of L.V. Kulikov was used. Kulikov in a shortened version (DS-6) (Kulikov, 2003), the respondents’ attitude towards religious practice was assessed by the author’s questionnaire. Analysis of the study results confirmed our hypothesis that the level of religiosity, both external and internal, is associated with various aspects of psychological stability. The study revealed a significant positive relationship between internal religiosity and such scales of the dominant psychological state as “stability of emotional tone”, “calmness”, “high tone”, and a negative relationship with the scale “active attitude to life situation”. And also the results of the study showed that the connection between external religiosity and the scales of the dominant psychological state is not significant in any of the cases, except for the negative connection with the “stability of emotional tone” scale. This generally indicates that for Muslims living in Russian megacities and who took part in the study, internal religiosity is a significant factor in increasing psychological stability.

A Mixed-Methods Study on Religiosity, Pandemic Beliefs, and Psychological Well-Being During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Malaysia

This paper examines the association between religious identity, religiosity (internal vs external), and psychological well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data from two cross-sectional surveys were used to test these associations among Malaysians from the three major religious groups—Muslims, Christians, and Buddhists—as well as mixed qualitative coding on illness beliefs and helpful resources. During the pandemic, higher religiosity was associated with less perceived stress, external religiosity was negatively associated with stress, and internal religiosity was positively associated with life satisfaction among young adults. Thematic coding also confirmed a variety of illness beliefs and helpful resources relevant to social and religious norms. Different pathways of religious coping were utilized during the pandemic.

PSYCHOLOGICAL CORRELATIONS OF RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY OF BELIEVERS

the article is devoted to the study of indicators of religious activity and the use of prayer as coping, existential resources, religious self-regulation, personal virtues. 98 people of different faiths took part in the study. It was found that the higher the manifestation of religious activity as a combination of the ability to religious experiences, actions and a deep inner need to communicate with Theos, the greater the autonomous religious self-regulation and psychological need to use prayer to ensure various coping functions. It is shown that religious activity is positively related to such personal virtues as constancy, integrity, kindness, mercy, humility, prudence and spirituality, however, external religious motivation is related to creativity, love of learning, cheerfulness, love, social intelligence, hope , gratitude and humor, that is, having an adaptive potential for the challenges of the modern life of a believer. In addition, higher indicators of external religiosity predict a higher degree of development of the existential resources of the individual. It was determined that the naturalistic worldview corresponds to a higher degree of development of the moral component of spiritual intelligence, whereas the religious worldview is to a greater extent mutually determined by high indicators of the transcendental component of spiritual intelligence in believers.

Youth Religiosity: A Bibliometric Coverage and Quantitative Assesemnt of Internal and External Dimensions

Abstract Due to its complex character, the evaluation of the way an individual is religious involves multidimensional approaches, which includes both aspects of creeds and effective manifestation. The exhaustive bibliometric analysis reveals eight main research themes of interest, at the interaction of religiosity and youth. In the context of assessing religiosity, the paper further provides an analysis of the religious phenomenon among Romanian adolescents and young adults. It employs an exploratory factor analysis for identifying the specific religiosity dimensions, and principal components analysis for reducing dimensionality and for a more in-depth analysis. Both adolescents and young adults exhibit a relatively strong level of internal religiosity, which pertains to personal beliefs and faith. Additionally, both groups demonstrate a moderate level of external religiosity, which refers to religious practices and behaviours.

Individual Religiosity and Career Choice: Does Cultural Religiosity Moderate the Relationship?

Although research on the influence of religion on entrepreneurial entry has progressed substantially, the conceptual and empirical approaches are still far from being conclusive. To advance, we utilize the big our religious dimensions to examine how internal (believing and behaving) and external (bonding and belonging) religiosity may affect the propensity of individuals to be self-employed rather than paid employees. Together, we test if the country’s level of religiosity moderates the relationship. Drawing on the recent World Values Survey Wave 7 (2017–2021), we analyzed data from a sample of 39,606 working adults in 49 countries. In general, we found that the self-employed consistently exhibit stronger religiosity of behaving, bonding, and belonging than paid workers. However, the moderating effects suggest that religiosity at the country level prevails over individual religiosity—consistent with the idea that social environment is a more dominant factor even in individual decision making.

Religiosity and the Spread of COVID-19: A Multinational Comparison

This article considers the relationships between population religiosity and the coronavirus pandemic situation across different countries. Country-level analyses were based on data from the World Values Survey, Worldometer, and International Monetary Fund covering information about internal (beliefs) and external (practices) religiosity, religious fundamentalism, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the economic situation at two time points in 47 countries. Results showed that declared attendance at religious services is related to more COVID-19 infections and deaths, as well as when controlling for gross domestic product per capita and the number of coronavirus tests per 1 million population. This effect remained in the longitudinal perspective (of six months) and extended from external religiosity only, to both internal and external religiosity indices.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10943-022-01521-9.

Религиозный фактор в становлении молодежного менталитета

In the article the author considers the issue that currently mentality is influenced primarily by economic, social, cultural, religious, political factors. The most important factor affecting the mentality, behavior, character of an individual, social group is religion. Today in the world the mental traits of any social group, especially youth, are more susceptible to change, since the historical development of the mentality of young people is more dynamic than the development of the mentality of other demographic groups, as it is more susceptible to innovation and innovation. Most young Russians in all regions of our multi-confessional country perceive themselves as believers. The difference in religious beliefs contributes to the separation of the youth social group. To prevent religious conflicts, it is important to form a tolerant attitude of representatives of different faiths to each other. It is indicated that the so-called imaginary religiosity appeared, when only external religiosity is presented without a deep internal commitment to dogma. These processes are most clearly visible among young people. The confessional identification of the young generation of Russians in most cases is determined purely ethnically. Often young people determine their religion not by deep convictions, but by a formal-ethnic principle. It is emphasized that at present in Russian society there are not enough cultural and moral prerequisites for the revival of genuine religious spirituality, and the difference in religious beliefs contributes to the separation of the youth environment.

THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN INDIVIDUAL-TYPOLOGICAL PECULIARITIES OF BELIEVERS IN RELATIONSHIP WITH THE TYPE OF THEIR RELIGIOUS ORIENTATION

The paper is devoted to the problems of the psychology of believers, which are relevant to modern science. The paper analyses the results of a study on the relationship between the characteristics of a person’s religiosity and his/her individual typological characteristics. To conduct the study, a theoretical analysis was used, as well as reliable and valid methods of psychological diagnosis were applied: a scale of religious orientation by G. Allport and D. Ross, an individually typological questionnaire by L.N. Sobchik, test “Study of the subjective control level” (SCL); processing of the results was carried out using mathematical statistics methods, including t-student test and correlation analysis. The study found differences in the level of subjective personality control between believers with an external and internal religious orientation, namely that people with an external religious orientation are more extroverts than introverts. It was also found that external religiosity is inversely related to most indicators of the locus of control. The results of the study are important to expand understanding of the psychology of believers. An important conclusion that the study allows us to draw is the fact that the selection of believers by their individual typological characteristics is not uniform, which means that research on the psychology of believers should be carried out in the context of their religious orientation.

The Types of Religious Identity of Chechen Students

Introduction. In connection with the growth of religious consciousness of young people in Russia, the study of their religious identity is being updated. Scientists pay special attention to Islamic denominations, as both in Western countries and in the Russian Federation, the number of Muslims is increasing. However, scientific publications cover mainly sociological aspects of the problem, and its psychological component remains insufficiently investigated, which largely determines the social behaviour of a person and affects the process of his or her socialisation. In view of the interest shown by the scientific community in Arab-Muslim culture, appropriate psychological research should be carried out in Muslim-dominated regions. The Chechen Republic is one of such territories in the Russian Federation.The aim is to identify the characteristics and types of religious identity of Chechen students.Methodology and research methods. The study was performed in the framework of socio-psychological approach using the following questionnaires: “Scale of Religious Orientation” by G. Allport, D. Ross; “Structure of Individual Religiosity” by Y. V. Shcherbatykh; questionnaires developed by A. N. Tatarko and N. M. Lebedeva for the study of certainty and valence of ethnic identity and readiness for interethnic interaction; “Types of Ethnic Identity” by G. U. Soldatova and S. V. Ryzhova.Results and scientific novelty. It is revealed that the majority of Chechen students are characterised by consistently internal religious orientation, in which religion is the main value and primary motive of activity. Almost a quarter of respondents demonstrated consistently external religious orientation, characterised by instrumental or external significance. A small group of respondents can be classified as inconsistently religious, whose external religiosity prevails over the internal, and their motivation for behaviour is poorly connected with religion. On the basis of the factor analysis, the types of religious identity of Chechen students are revealed: ethno-cultural, true Muslim, formal, pro-social, non-adaptive, nonreligious, ethnocentric and positive ethnic. The present study evidences that the structure of social identity of students is dominated by ethno-cultural religious identity.Practical significance. The research results extend the knowledge about the content of the concept of “religious identity”, its place in the structure of social identity of the individual, as well as about the relationship of religious orientations with ethnic identity.

Impact of religiosity on ethical judgement: a study on preference of retail stores among consumers

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to identify the impact of ethical judgements, depending on religiosity level of consumers, on decisions of buying or not buying products from supermarkets selling alcoholic beverages.Design/methodology/approachThe scope of this study covers consumers from province of Mus in Turkey who indicate they go shopping at supermarkets. Accordingly, data are collected from 362 consumers via face-to-face survey and the results are evaluated through regression analysis.FindingsAccording to analysis, it was found that the internal and external religiosity of the consumers positively affected their ethical judgement towards the markets selling alcoholic beverages. Besides, it is concluded that the ethical judgements of consumers have a positive impact on boycott decisions against supermarkets selling alcoholic beverages.Originality/valueThe survey contributes to relevant literature by putting forth the impact of ethical judgements of consumers, associated with their level of religiosity, on their decisions as to preference of supermarkets. Moreover, this study is consistent with the previous studies and supports the conclusion that the ethical decisions are affected by the extrinsic and intrinsic levels of religiosity; however, they are more affected by the intrinsic levels of religiosity.

Homofobia internalizada e satisfação sexual em casais homossexuais

Objetivo: El objetivo desta investigación fue observar la influencia de las variables homofobia internalizada y religiosidad en la satisfacción sexual de sujetos en relaciones con personas del mismo sexo.
 Método: Se realizó un estudio con 94 sujetos, 49 hombres y 45 mujeres, viviendo en una relación estable con pareja del mismo, sexo. La hipótesis inicial es que altos niveles de homofobia internalizada y de religiosidad influencian de forma negativa la satisfacción sexual de sujetos en relaciones LGB. Los datos fueron recolectados de forma presencial con cuestionario auto-aplicable abordando: aspectos sociodemográficos, homofobia internalizada, homofobia externa sufrida, satisfacción sexual e índice de religiosidad. Se realizaron comparaciones de media intergrupos con análisis unidireccional ANOVA entre variables estudiadas Se realizó la prueba de correlaciones de Pearson entre las variables y, por fin, un análisis de regresión lineal teniendo como resultado la variable satisfacción sexual.
 Resultados: Los resultados apuntaron menores niveles de satisfacción entre los grupos con mayor homofobia internalizada, así como para una diferencia significativa en la satisfacción de sujetos en niveles distintos de religiosidad, confirmando así la hipótesis prevista.
 Conclusions: Se discute que la homofobia internalizada prevé negativamente la satisfacción sexual del sujeto, a medida que interfiere en su bienestar subjetivo, y que otras variables, como apertura y religiosidad, también tienen una influencia relevante en este contexto.

Tax Compliance: Between Intrinsic Religiosity and Extrinsic Religiosity

This study examined the correlation between intention on tax compliance and tax compliance behavior with the moderating variable of religiosity orientation both intrinsic religiosity and extrinsic religiosity. The religiosity orientation in this study used religiosity orientation commitment, which better illustrates the commitment on religiosity orientation in everyday life rather than to the presence of individuals in a place of worship as in previous studies. The population in this study is individual taxpayer in Central Java; the sample is taken using multi-stage sampling technique. By using PLS, this study showed that there was an influence of the intention to comply on tax compliance. External religiosity orientation was proved to strengthen the influence of the intention to comply on tax compliance while intrinsic religiosity orientation was not. Tax authorities can utilize the finding by conducting a collaboration with religious leaders to provide insight for taxpayers that religious considerations should affect business considerations that religious teaching is the most important thing in the daily lives and there should be a balance between religious teaching and physical life.

ПСИХОЛОГІЧНІ ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ІНДИВІДУАЛЬНОЇ РЕЛІГІЙНОСТІ МАЙБУТНІХ ПСИХОЛОГІВ

The article reveals the results of the study of the peculiarities of the individual religiosity of future psychologists. Presented are peculiarities of religious self-identity and types of religious orientation of future psychologists, their attitude to the requirements of traditional religion, the foundations of doctrine and religious literature, the views of those who are being studied on a believer, as well as the structure of their individual religiosity. Analyzed, established by the authors, three religious orientations of future psychologists. The first is the traditional religious orientation with the domination of external religiosity, which is characterized by a superficial understanding of theological doctrine. The basic religious provisions and dogma remain out of the attention of such students and do not form the value system that they really want to be guided in their lives. A significant number of students are committed to non-traditional religiosity with an interest in magic rituals and occultism, to non-traditional transpersonal subjects. Their individual religiosity is a synthesis of faith in magic rituals and occultism and curiosity about mysterious phenomena, as well as certain philosophical concepts. For the third orientation of students, the tendency to combine traditional religiosity with non-traditional, religious beliefs of such students is eclectic, since they combine the views of various religious schools with a strong commitment to adherence to Christian traditions, but such students prefer the extra-church search for contact with the divine. This state of affairs causes concern to the authors, because the success of the future psychologist will necessarily affect his outlook settings, spiritual values and beliefs. The results require additional research into the problem of individual religiosity of future psychologists and close attention to this problem by all those involved in the training of future specialists in the field of psychology.

Measuring Five Dimensions of Religiosity across Adolescence.

This paper theorizes and tests a latent variable model of adolescent religiosity in which five dimensions of religiosity are interrelated: religious beliefs, religious exclusivity, external religiosity, private practice, and religious salience. Research often theorizes overlapping and independent influences of single items or dimensions of religiosity on outcomes such as adolescent sexual behavior, but rarely operationalizes the dimensions in a measurement model accounting for their associations with each other and across time. We use longitudinal structural equation modeling (SEM) with latent variables to analyze data from two waves of the National Study of Youth and Religion. We test our hypothesized measurement model as compared to four alternate measurement models and find that our proposed model maintains superior fit. We then discuss the associations between the five dimensions of religiosity we measure and how these change over time. Our findings suggest how future research might better operationalize multiple dimensions of religiosity in studies of the influence of religion in adolescence.

Addressing Criticisms of Global Religion Research: A Consumption‐Based Exploration of Status and Materialism, Sustainability, and Volunteering Behavior

Religion is a key source of core values and one of the most deeply psychological experiences; however, prior research has often inadequately measured religion's influence on consumption behaviors. Our research addresses criticisms of prior research by (1) reducing cultural bias by conducting research within one country, (2) examining both religious affiliation and religiosity, (3) exploring numerous consumption behaviors (social status desire, materialism views, sustainable behaviors, environmental views, and volunteering behavior) in a within‐subjects design, and (4) testing religion's effect on consumption behavior with over 1,000 participants. Findings provide insight for consumer well‐being. Specifically, consumers high in external religiosity are more materialistic, more sustainable, and more likely to volunteer than consumers low in external religiosity. Consumers high in internal religiosity are also more likely to be sustainable and hold pro‐environmental views. In addition, Buddhists and Hindus are less likely to hold pro‐environmental views than Christians. Buddhists are more materialistic than Christians, and Hindus are less desiring of social status than Christians. In addressing the criticisms of prior research in the context of consumption, our research builds on values‐based and social‐based theories.

Investigating the Effect of Internal and External Religiosity on the Political Dimension of National Solidarity (Case Study: Citizens of Mashhad City)

The issue solidarity and integration among different parts and creating adaptive totalities have always been the issue of intellectuals’ thinking and action. In this arena, creating national solidarity as one of the main dimensions of social integration is among serious concerns of independent countries and among its most important benefits one can refer to establishing national security which has a deep relationship with the quiddity of people’s links to each other and people’s links to their governments in the form of integrating within countries. The waves of internal and external upheavals has become so transforming that the access to integrating components and elements in social relations seems an undeniable necessity and vitality. Therefore, re-identifying and reconstructing dynamic and sustainable canonical factors of “national cohesion” is a scientific necessity and a research requirement. Accordingly, one of the factors affecting the national solidarity in Iran is citizens’ religious attitudes in the society. The present study is meant to investigate the theoretical relationship between the two concepts of political dimension and religiosity among citizens of Mashhad City. The present study, by dividing religiosity to two internal and external types, and using the survey research, indicates that the increase in internal and external religiosity causes the increase in the political dimension of citizens’ national solidarity. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n5s1p419

Dependence of the Social and Psychological Adaptability of Religiosity among First-Year Students

Modern society is in dire need of finding and developing ways of mental health self-control that allow people as painlessly as possible to overcome various kinds of stress. Religiosity, as personal quality, which is expressed in the aggregate of certain properties of consciousness, behavior and attitudes can be considered as a factor that certainly affects the social and psychological adaptability. The objective of the article is to show by an example of students whose age is less than eighteen years of age, correlation peculiarities of religion and a number of characteristics of social and psychological adaptability. To achieve the objective we have chosen relevant psychological tests and used statistical methods. It has been shown that the internal religiosity does not directly affect the general characteristics of such psychological adaptability as the ability to self-regulation of behavior, communication and socialization of students with low levels of external religiosity. However, regulating mechanisms of social and psychological adaptability of the subjects differ greatly. Aspects of the research may be used in theoretical courses of lectures on the psychology of religion and religious studies, social psychology, as well as in practical psychology to better understand the motives of young people and the development of individual-oriented psychocorrective techniques that promote social and psychological adaptability, taking into account the level of internal religiosity of customer identity.

Religiosity and Migration Aspirations among Mexican Youth.

International migration has become an important topic of discussion from a policy and humanitarian perspective. Part of the debate includes a renewed interest in understanding the factors that influence decisions about migration to the US among Mexican youth still residing in their country of origin. The purpose of this study was to advance knowledge specifically about internal and external religiosity and their influence on youths' migration aspirations. The data for this study were collected in 2007 from students enrolled in an alternative high school program located in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico. The findings indicated that as external religiosity increases, the desire to work or live in the USA decreases. Furthermore, as internal religiosity increases, the desire to work or live in the USA and plans to migrate increase. The results are interpreted and discussed in light of previous research on religious and cultural norm adherence.