In Good Faith
Religious Attendance in Cross‐National Perspective: A Multilevel Analysis of 60 Countries
Stijn Ruiter & Frank van Tubergen
American Journal of Sociology, November 2009, Pages 863-895
Abstract:
Why are some nations more religious than others? This article proposes a multilevel framework in which country differences in religious attendance are explained by contextual, individual, and cross‐level interaction effects. Hypotheses from different theories are simultaneously tested with data from 60 nations obtained from the European/World Values Surveys. Multilevel logistic regression analyses show that religious regulation in a country diminishes religious attendance and that there are only small negative effects of people's own education and average educational level of the country. Religious attendance is strongly affected by personal and societal insecurities and by parental and national religious socialization and level of urbanization. These theories explain 75% of the cross‐national variation in religious attendance.
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Religion and income: Heterogeneity between countries
L. Bettendorf & E. Dijkgraafyz
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper tests whether the behaviour of households in different countries is homogeneous with respect to the influence of religion on income. The violation of the homogeneity assumption would have two consequences. First, results based on country studies might not be applicable to other countries. Second, one should be careful when pooling cross-country data in this type of research. Data at household level from the European and World Values Survey are pooled for 25 western countries. We estimate simultaneously an income and a religion equation to correct for the endogeneity of religiousness. We find that estimation outcomes are different for low- and high-income countries: whereas church membership is found to have a positive effect on income for high-income countries, this effect is negative for low-income countries. This result is robust to denominational distribution, participation effects and alternative measures of religiousness.
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Randomness, Attributions of Arousal, and Belief in God
Aaron Kay, David Moscovitch & Kristin Laurin
Psychological Science, February 2010, Pages 216-218
"Experimental investigations of the psychological underpinnings of religious belief remain relatively rare, despite the clear societal consequences and prevalence of such beliefs, and despite the contribution that this research can make to researchers' understanding of basic psychological processes. Using a novel combination of experimental methodologies, we observed that participants primed with randomness-related words exhibited heightened beliefs in spiritual control compared with participants primed with negatively valenced control words. This effect disappeared when participants were given the opportunity to attribute the cause of any arousal they experienced to a pill ingested earlier in the session. These data suggest that belief in supernatural sources of control, such as God and karma, may function, in part, to defend against distress associated with randomness, even when the perception of randomness is not related to traumatic events."
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Mutual Fund Risk-Taking and Local Religious Beliefs
Tao Shu, Johan Sulaeman & Eric Yeung
University of Georgia Working Paper, January 2010
Abstract:
We examine the relations between mutual fund risk-taking behaviors and local religious beliefs. Consistent with Protestants (Catholics) being more (less) risk-averse than the general population, we find that mutual funds located in regions with lower Protestant population or higher Catholic population tend to have higher return volatilities. The variation in exposures to systematic risk explains only a small portion of this difference as we observe a similar pattern in idiosyncratic return volatilities. We also find that intra-year increases in fund volatility associated with tournament-like competition exist only in mutual funds located in areas with lower Protestant or higher Catholic population. After controlling for exposures to common risk factors, we find little evidence that the higher idiosyncratic volatilities are rewarded with higher returns. Further analysis reveals that the higher fund return volatilities can be attributed to less diversified equity portfolios and more aggressive interim trading. Specifically, funds located in regions with lower Protestant population or higher Catholic population concentrate their holdings in fewer industries, trade more frequently, and earn more positive return gaps.
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Anca Cojoc
Public Choice, March 2010, Pages 485-496
Abstract:
Previous literature modeling the demand for religion has identified socioeconomic factors, religious human capital and religious market structure as being the fundamental determinants of the level of participation in religious services and practices. Building on the existing literature, this study analyzes the effect of government regulation and intervention on religious activity. Using religion-related data as well as demographic and economic data from 22 Eastern European countries after the fall of Communism, the existence of any form of religious restrictions is found to reduce church attendance rates.
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Deus Vult: The Geopolitics of the Catholic Church
John Agnew
Geopolitics, January 2010, Pages 39-61
Abstract:
The Catholic Church is a religious tradition with a highly centralised organisational structure which operates worldwide but that must adjust itself to and effectively operate in local and world-regional contexts that can often challenge and threaten to subvert its central doctrines, operational principles, and political compromises with secular authorities. The Church has long provided the source and model, with its base in the sacred origins of sovereignty, for a quintessentially Western statehood. In this context, I wish to raise three points for further discussion using the significant example of the Catholic Church that future research on the contemporary confluence between religion and geopolitics should address. The first is whether a church can have "geopolitics." I answer in the affirmative with a number of arguments for doing so. The second is the idea, made in writing and in his practice by Pope Benedict, that Western civilisation is in crisis and that only a restoration of a historic Christendom (Europe) based on a reinvigorated Catholic Church can save it. I dispute the strategy of "hard" or coercive power and the focus on Europe he has apparently chosen as departing from what has often best served the Church in the past. Third, and finally, in the global struggle for souls, numbers matter. Somewhat akin to the struggle for primacy between states in the modern geopolitical imagination, the struggle for souls between faiths (Catholics and Protestants, Moslems and Christians, etc.) is once more in ascendance. But doesn't this quantitative emphasis risk subverting the Church's post-Vatican II emphasis on Christian practice in everyday life? The overall purpose of the article is to introduce religious organisation and associated theological claims into the problematic of geopolitics using the case of the world's largest Christian denomination.
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Parental Styles and Religious Values Among Teenagers: A 3-Year Prospective Analysis
Patrick Heaven, Joseph Ciarrochi & Peter Leeson
Journal of Genetic Psychology, January-March 2010, Pages 93-99
Abstract:
The authors examined the effect of Grade 7 parental styles on Grade 10 religious values. The authors surveyed 784 participants (382 boys, 394 girls; 8 unreported) in Grade 7. The mean age of the group at Time 1 was 12. 3 years (SD = 0.5 years). Time 2 occurred 3 years later when students were in Grade 10 (372 boys, 375 girls). In addition to assessing parental styles at Time 1, we also controlled for a number of Time 1 variables thought to possibly influence Time 2 religious values, namely, self-esteem, trait hope, and students' levels of conscientiousness. Time 1 measures (except self-esteem) were significantly correlated with Time 2 religious values, but only parental authoritativeness and hope significantly predicted religious values. The authors discuss these results with reference to the nature of parental styles and hope and their impact on religious values.
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The Puzzle of Muslim Advantage in Child Survival in India
Sonia Bhalotra, Christine Valente & Arthur van Soest
Journal of Health Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
The socio-economic status of Indian Muslims is, on average, considerably lower than that of upper caste Hindus. Muslims nevertheless exhibit substantially higher child survival rates, and have done for decades. This paper analyses this seeming puzzle. A decomposition of the survival differential confirms that some compositional effects favour Muslims but that, overall, differences in characteristics and especially the Muslim deficit in parental education predict a Muslim disadvantage. The results of this study contribute to a recent literature that debates the importance of socioeconomic status (SES) in determining health and survival. They augment a growing literature on the role of religion or culture as encapsulating important unobservable behaviours or endowments that influence health, indeed, enough to reverse the SES gradient that is commonly observed.
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Robert Kugelmann
History of Psychology, August 2009, Pages 201-226
Abstract:
The American Catholic Psychological Association (ACPA) was a voluntary association that formed and then transformed itself during a distinctive period of American history. Socially, American Catholics were primed to emerge from what they called their "ghetto," as this formerly largely immigrant group began to enter the economic and social mainstream. Institutions of higher education and psychology were recipients, moreover, of federal funding in the wake of World War II, and some of this money flowed to Catholic institutions. The ACPA began in 1947 as a way to bring Catholics in greater numbers into psychology and also to bring a Catholic perspective to bear on psychology. This article describes and analyzes the major initiatives of the ACPA: the establishment of undergraduate and graduate programs in psychology at Catholic colleges; placement services for members; and the development of psychological assessment programs for candidates for the religious life. In these ways, empirical psychological categories became part of Catholic discourses about psychological life. The ACPA voluntarily restructured itself in the late 1960s in response to a changed social environment and to a consensus that its first aim had been achieved. New issues were surfacing, making a denominational group irrelevant. The ACPA became Psychologists Interested in Religious Issues (PIRI) in 1970.
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Gender Ideology and Status Attainment of Conservative Christian Women in the 21st Century
Margaret Gonsoulin
Sociological Spectrum, March 2010, Pages 220-240
Abstract:
Theoretically derived measures and hypotheses concerning the connection between family ideology, gender ideals, and status attainment levels of conservative Christian women are examined in the twenty-first century. Conservative Christian women have a more intensive view of mothering, a stronger prolife stance, a younger age of childbearing, a higher number of children and a lower education level. These trends tend to intensify for women who convert to conservative churches after the age of 16 and reduce for women who engage in wage-work. A belief in Biblical inerrancy directly reduces educational attainment as does a higher intensity of mothering, a younger age of childbearing, and higher number of children. While there is no discernible direct effect of religiosity on income level, there is an indirect effect that is important to note.
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Who spares the rod? Religious orientation, social conformity, and child abuse potential
Christina Rodriguez & Ryan Henderson
Child Abuse & Neglect, forthcoming
Objective: Relatively little research has investigated the connection between religiosity and physical child abuse risk. Certain aspects, such as specific religious orientation or beliefs, and cognitive schema, such as socially conformist beliefs, may account for the connection that some have claimed increase religious parents' abuse potential. The current study examined whether greater Extrinsic religiosity, but not Intrinsic religiosity, was associated with elevated physical abuse potential. Those who hold a literal interpretation of the Bible and attend church more frequently were also expected to evidence increased abuse risk. Additionally, the role of social conformity in mediating or moderating the association between religiosity and abuse potential was investigated.
Methods: Two hundred and seven regularly attending Christians of various denominations completed self-report measures of religiosity, social conformity, and child abuse potential. Results: Findings indicate that Extrinsic religiosity was associated with increased physical abuse potential, with greater social conformity further moderating this association. Intrinsic religious orientation was not associated with abuse risk. Further, those who consider the Bible to be literally true were more socially conformist and evidenced greater abuse risk.
Conclusions: For those working with religious parents, the particular nature of religiosity needs to be considered when interpreting a connection between religiosity and abuse risk, as well as the potential attitudes the parent holds regarding the need for conformity. Given the complexity of religiosity, future research should explore other potential mediating and moderating factors that could further clarify its connection to physical abuse risk.
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Putting on Sunday Best: The Silencing of Battered Women Within Christian Faith Communities
Nicole Knickmeyer, Heidi Levitt & Sharon Horne
Feminism & Psychology, February 2010, Pages 94-113
Abstract:
This paper presents findings related to the silencing of battered women within Christian faith communities in Memphis, Tennessee, a large metropolitan area in the Mid-South region of the United States. Participants in this qualitative inquiry were 10 Christian identified women from diverse denominations and racial/ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds who had experienced intimate partner violence. Data were analyzed according to grounded theory method. Findings illuminate mechanisms through which Christian beliefs about the sanctity of marriage and partner and community pressure to present as model Christians serve to shame and silence battered women. Findings are discussed in relation to stages that participants negotiated as they sought to create abuse-free lives.