This study assessed the relation between religious involvement and multiple indices of competence in 183 eighth- and ninth-grade Indonesian Muslim adolescents (M = 13.3 years). The authors assessed spirituality and religiosity using both parent and adolescent reports, and social competence and adjustment using multiple measures and data sources. Structural equation modeling analyses revealed that parent and adolescent reports of religiosity and spirituality yielded a single religious involvement latent variable that was related to peer group status, academic achievement, emotional regulation, prosocial behavior, antisocial/problem behavior, internalizing behavior, and self-esteem. The consistency of relations between religious involvement and competence may be in part attributable to the collectivist context of religion in West Java, Indonesia, within which people exhibit strong beliefs in Islam and religion permeates daily life.

The spirituality and religiosity of Indonesian Muslim adolescents were examined longitudinally as were the relations of spirituality and religiosity with (mal)adjustment. At Time 1 (T1), 959 seventh-grade Muslim adolescents were screened for selection of a sample; at Time 2 (T2), 183 eighth-grade adolescents participated; and at Time 3 (T3), 300 ninth-grade adolescents (164 new participants) participated. At T1, adolescents' peer likeability was assessed; at T2, adolescents' global and cognitive esteem were measured; and at T2 and T3, adolescents' (mal)adjustment, spirituality, and religiosity were assessed. Adolescents and parents rated aspects of (mal)adjustment, spirituality, and religiosity. Teachers also rated adolescents' (mal)adjustment. In general, we found that T2 spirituality and religiosity were positively related to T3 adjustment and negatively related to T3 maladjustment, although in panel models, support for prediction of outcomes from spirituality and religiosity was found only for loneliness and socially appropriate behavior. In addition, there was some evidence in the models that certain aspects of (mal)adjustment (self-esteem and social competence, and to a marginal degree, parent-rated internalizing problems and teacher-rated prosociality) predicted spirituality and religiosity longitudinally.

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ParentϪadolescent relationships invariably occur within a complex cultural context that in some populations include strong religious influences. Using data from multiple sources that were analyzed using structural equation modeling, we found that parental warmth and parental religiosity predicted adolescent religiosity in a sample of 296 Indonesian 15-year-old adolescents. The significant interaction of parental warmth and parent religiosity indicated that parental warmth moderated the relation between parent religiosity and adolescent religiosity. We expanded this model to predict externalizing and prosocial behavior where direct paths from adolescent religiosity to outcomes were significant for prosocial but not antisocial behavior; parental warmth, parent religiosity, and their interaction did not predict either outcome. Adolescent religiosity was found to be a mediator of these relations between predictor and outcomes for prosocial but not antisocial behavior. These results suggest that, in Indonesia and perhaps other highly religious cultures, parentϪadolescent relationships and social competence may be interconnected with religion.

Loneliness and antisocial behavior were predicted from religiosity and positive religious coping in this 1-year longitudinal study of 564 16-year-old Indonesian Muslim adolescents. An externalizing behavior construct was formed from 3 variables (i.e., self-reported tobacco and alcohol use, self-reported problem behavior, and peer-rated aggression). Loneliness was self-reported. Externalizing behavior was significantly predicted by religiosity in concurrent analyses and marginally predicted by religiosity in the longitudinal analyses. In contrast, positive religious coping predicted loneliness both concurrently and longitudinally. These results are consistent with the view that Islam religiousness is multifaceted and that specific aspects of Islamic religiousness are differentially associated with youth adjustment.