Parental religiosity has been shown to predict child and adolescent religiosity, but the role of parents in emerging adult religiosity is largely unknown. We explored associations among emerging adult religiosity, perceived parental religiosity, perceived similarity to mother's and to father's religious beliefs, parental faith support, and parental attachment. Participants were 481 alumni of two Christian colleges and completed surveys online. Emerging adult religiosity (measured by Christian orthodoxy and intrinsic religiosity) was high and similar to parents' religiosity. Perceived similarity to parents' religious beliefs, faith support, and attachment to fathers predicted emerging adult religiosity. However, parental religiosity alone was a weak predictor and functioned as a negative suppressor variable when combined with similarity to parents' beliefs and faith support. Findings underscore the importance of parental support and parent-child relationship dynamics more than the level of parental religiosity and point to possibly unique roles for mothers and fathers in emerging adult religiosity.
This longitudinal qualitative study explores the impact of natural disasters on religious attachment (perceived relationship with God). We sought to validate and conceptually extend the religion-as-attachment model in a postdisaster context. Method: At 4 weeks (T1; n ϭ 36) and 6 months postdisaster (T2; n ϭ 29), survivors of the 2016 Louisiana flood completed a disaster-adapted version of the Religious Attachment Interview (Granqvist & Main, 2017). Results: At T1 and T2, survivors emphasized God being a safe haven (source of protection, comfort, or nurturance). This emphasis was especially pronounced for survivors who were directly affected (their home or business flooded) or had previous disaster exposure to Hurricane Katrina. Overall, survivors consistently emphasized God serving as a stronger and wiser attachment figure, and it was rare for them to report experiencing perceived separation or loss of intimacy from God. At T1 and T2, around 85% of survivors described their current religious attachment as either having a positive affective quality (e.g., closer, stronger) or as no different from before the disaster; around 15% said it had a negative affective quality (e.g., disappointed, strained). In describing their postdisaster religion/spirituality, survivors highlighted (a) God being a source of love, comfort, strength, and hope; (b) actively putting trust/faith in God; and (c) experiencing God through family/community. Conclusion: Results support and conceptually extend the religion-as-attachment model in a postdisaster context. Findings suggest disasters activate the attachment system, and survivors commonly view and relate with God as an attachment figure, especially one who serves as a safe haven. Clinical Impact StatementPractitioners can encourage religious natural-disaster survivors to draw on their relationship with God as a source of coping, support, and resilience. Interventions can help them cultivate a security-enhancing connection with a benevolent, stronger-and-wiser God-an ever-present safe haven who helps them navigate their recovery.
This study assessed emerging adults' attachment relationships with parents, peers, and God to explore the sufficiency of the correspondence and compensation models of attachment. We analyzed narratives of 119 (60 male) Christian college graduates describing their relational experiences with God. Narratives were coded for five relational patterns in attachment relationships (Granqvist & Kirkpatrick, 2008). Participants also completed the IPPA scale and were categorized into high or low secure parental and peer attachment groups. No significant differences were found between peer and parental attachment so peer attachment was dropped from further analysis. All of the relational attachment patterns appeared in participant narratives. Perceiving God as Stronger and Wiser appeared most often in both high and low secure parental narratives; Safe Haven and Secure Base also appeared in both attachment groups' narratives. Importantly, emerging adults with low parental security nevertheless articulated reciprocal experiences of secure, intimate attachment with God, suggesting refinement in the correspondence and compensation models to include the potential for a spiritual relationship with God that serves a corrective or reparative role.
The construct of quest as measured by the Quest Scale raises complexities that this study addressed with online surveys measuring religiosity, ego identity, and well-being of graduates from two Christian colleges. Intrinsic questers (those above the scale midpoint in intrinsic and quest scores but below the extrinsic midpoint) made up over half of those high in intrinsic religiosity and did not differ in Christian orthodoxy, religious identity, religious coping, or well-being from the pure intrinsics (those high in intrinsic religiosity). Indiscriminately pro-religious questing individuals (those high in intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity and quest) were less religious and showed poorer coping than intrinsic questers. Quest appears to be a reasonable measure of religious orientation, improving prediction of Christian orthodoxy, religious identity, and religious coping, and was more highly correlated with ego identity exploration than with stress. In association with intrinsic religiosity quest does not appear to indicate weak religiosity or poor well-being. Instead, intrinsic questers may pursue a distinctive developmental trajectory, a path of existential searching by which emerging adults manage the demands of contemporary culture while maintaining a mature faith.
Using a longitudinal, mixed-methods design and building on Shults and Sandage's (2006) relational spirituality model, we explored spiritual seeking, spiritual dwelling, and the dialectical process of balancing spiritual seeking and dwelling. Assessing a sample of 77 Christian emerging adults twice over a 2-year period (thirty-nine 2006 graduates and thirty-eight 2008 graduates), we quantitatively measured spiritual seeking (using the Quest Scale) and qualitatively measured spiritual dwelling (using narratives of spiritual experiences) and the dialectical-balancing process (using narratives of faith turning points and of spiritual change in recent years). Results indicate that at 4 years postgraduation, emerging adults exhibit a more well-integrated (faith-life engagement), more communally oriented, and less personally focused spirituality. This pattern is especially likely among emerging adults who exhibit high spiritual questing along with mature reflections on transformative events in their spiritual lives. The promise of using qualitative, mixed-methods, and longitudinal methodologies to explore emerging adults' relational spirituality is discussed.
Family members who witnessed the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi arguably shape their children's narratives of the events and subsequent formation of outgroup prejudice. An understanding of whether vestiges of the genocide are transmitted to future generations informs ongoing peacebuilding efforts. We, therefore, examined the relationship between child and guardian attitudes toward one's outgroup among households of survivors or génocidaires and investigated whether this relationship was potentially affected by social interactions with members of outgroups (survivors or génocidaires) outside the family. We interviewed 588 members of survivor (153 guardian-child dyads) and génocidaire (141 guardian-child dyads) households in the Muhanga district of Rwanda to investigate whether children, 12-18 years old, conveyed their parents' outgroup prejudice after parents participated in a local peace intervention compared to when children participated in similar programming for youth. Structural equation modeling (SEM) results indicated that survivors' and génocidaires' outgroup prejudice did not influence their children's formation of these beliefs. Nor did children affect their guardians in this regard. However, other factors influenced children's beliefs in both households. In survivor households, children who endorsed more positive attitudes toward génocidaires reported stronger family relationships and more frequent interaction with génocidaires after adjusting for child age and gender, and guardian's gender. In génocidaire households, children's positive beliefs about survivors were influenced by more interactions with survivors and living with a guardian who participated in peace interventions. Rather than being passively shaped by their guardians' experiences, our results suggested that a new generation of viewpoints was being formed by relationships within and outside the family. Public Significance StatementThe children of survivors and génocidaires who directly experienced the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda do not share their parents' perceptions of people from outgroups-that is those who perpetrated harm or those victimized by it during the genocide. However, children's regard of outgroups in both households was influenced more by the quality of family relationships and the frequency of their interactions with members of their outgroup.
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