Family functioning among returnees to Orthodox Judaism in Israel.

Abstract

The role of religious conversion in marriages and family functioning has been little explored. The current study examined family functioning and parenting stress among returnees to Orthodox Judaism with adolescent children. Possible explanatory factors for difficulties, such as attachment insecurity, religious discord in families, and poor community integration, were also explored. Randomly selected samples of returnee and nonreturnee Orthodox Jews with adolescent children (N = 1632) completed measures of attachment, community integration, marital functioning, and parenting stress. Results indicate that returnees report greater family disengagement (lack of warmth), family chaos (lack of control), and parenting stress. They also reported higher religious discord, higher attachment insecurity, and poorer community integration, which all correlated with higher parenting stress, family disengagement (lack of warmth), and family chaos (lack of control). Moreover, differences between returnees and nonreturnees on family functioning and parenting stress were largely mediated by differences in the explanatory factors. These results substantiate previous anecdotal reports and suggest possible avenues for intervention among Orthodox returnees with family difficulties. They also support the relevance of religious factors in family functioning.

Family size and psychological functioning in the Orthodox Jewish community

“…This scale has previously demonstrated reliability and concurrent and discriminant validity (Olson, 2011;Olson, Gorall, & Tiesel, 2007), and the reliability and validity of the Hebrew version in Israeli samples have been previously demonstrated as well (Mikulincer & Florian, 2000;Kor, Mikulincer, & Pirutinsky, 2012). Given previous research suggesting that original sub-scales have questionable validity within the Orthodox Jewish population (Pirutinsky & Kor, 2013), we utilised an overall total scale reverse scoring all negative items and summing with the positive items.…”

Parents’ Self-Reported Attachment Styles

“…The majority of these studies found that both avoidance and anxiety were related to greater parenting stress. Studies that examined the effect of parent gender largely found that the link between insecure attachment styles and parenting stress was the same for mothers and fathers (Kor et al, 2012; Nygren et al, 2012; Rholes et al, 2006; Vasquez et al, 2002). …”

Religious Premarital Education and Marital Quality Within the Orthodox Jewish Community

“…The term "Orthodox Judaism" refers to a variety of more traditionally religious Jewish groups that accept the Bible's divine origination and adhere to detailed Talmudic laws (e.g., dietary restrictions, prayers, holiday rituals, and prescriptions for family life) that imbue everyday life with religious meaning (Kor, Mikulincer, & Pirutinsky, 2012). Orthodox Judaism also adopts a comprehensive meaning system based on belief in God, acceptance of His commandants, and eventual messianic redemption (Maimonides, 1990).…”