Religiousness and Social Support: A Study in Secular Norway

Nilsen, Marianne; Reidunsdatter, Randi Johansen; Løhre, Audhild; Nielsen, Michael

doi:10.1007/s13644-014-0171-4

Cited by 13 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…Belonging to such a community offers a variety of tools that are helpful in solving problems and play a noteworthy role in coping strategies employed in times of stress (Kvande et al 2015; Nguyen et al 2013). Through the provision of social support in the form of love, caring, and sympathy, community membership is associated with higher levels of self-esteem and a sense of control (Berkman 1995), leading to a positive influence on overall well-being.…”

Section: Belonging and Life Satisfaction: Cultural And Structural Facmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Religiosity on Life Satisfaction in a Secularized Context: Assessing the Relevance of Believing and Belonging

Kate

Koster

Waal

2017

Review of Religious Research

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The positive relationship between religiosity and life satisfaction is well-established. This relationship is, however, likely to vary across cultural contexts and different religious affiliations. Furthermore, research is needed to uncover why religion is relevant for life satisfaction. Addressing these issues, we investigate what dimensions of being religious play a role in the life satisfaction of individuals with different religious affiliations, including the understudied Muslim category, in the highly secularized Dutch context. We examine ‘believing’, which captures how religion provides meaning and a coherent worldview, and ‘belonging’, which comprises both cultural benefits of being embedded in a congregation with a shared framework of meaning and structural benefits due to more social ties. Analyses of the NEtherlands Longitudinal Lifecourse Study (n = 5312) first indicate that Muslims display significantly lower life satisfaction than the non-religious, which appears to be due to their underprivileged social position rather than intra-religious factors of believing and belonging. Second, we find that Catholics experience significant life satisfaction benefits compared to those who are not religious, and that only belonging plays a role in this association. Next to the beneficial effect of the structural aspect of belonging, which revolves around social ties, a cultural aspect of religious belonging appears to be salient, suggesting that an important life satisfaction advantage of religious communities lies in their ability to foster a sense of solidarity and commitment through a shared framework of meaning. We make several recommendations for further research based on these findings.

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Section: Belonging and Life Satisfaction: Cultural And Structural Facmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Religiosity on Life Satisfaction in a Secularized Context: Assessing the Relevance of Believing and Belonging

Kate

Koster

Waal

2017

Review of Religious Research

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“…Greater research examining different cultural contexts is needed to further generalize the results. For example, in other cultural spaces where the majority of individuals are secular, the association between religion and social support is dependent on the sex and age of the participant (Kvande et al., 2015). Furthermore, regular involvement in a church or in a religious group on campus or in the community is highly supportive of one’s religion, so the potential lack of support from the university may be mitigated.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Religiosity, religious acceptance, social interaction, and satisfaction with university experience

Mohebpour

Reysen

Gibson

et al. 2017

International Journal of Christianity & Education

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We tested a mediated moderation model with the interaction of students’ degree of religiosity and perception of the university environment as accepting of one’s religion predicting satisfaction with the university mediated by positive social relations. When the university was perceived as accepting of one’s religion (vs less accepting), greater religiosity predicted more positive relations with other students and greater university satisfaction. The model was supported with social interactions mediating the relationship between the interaction of religiosity and perceived environment and satisfaction with one’s university experience.

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“…Reviewing the studies mentioned in this article, we see that most Scandinavian studies (Hvidtjørn et al, 2014;Kvande, Reidunsdatter, et al, 2015;la Cour, 2008; tend to find that men may experience greater benefit from religion compared with women. One exception, however, is the Finnish study by Hintikka (2001) where church attendance was related to less mental health problems for women, but not men.…”

Section: Religion and Differential Benefits To Mental Health Across Gmentioning

confidence: 93%

Church Attendance and Religious Experience

2015

Self Cite

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Previous studies have shown that gender may moderate the relationship between religiousness and mental health in most countries, but few studies have been conducted in Norway and Denmark. This study examined gender differences in religious experiences and church attendance as predictors of existential well-being among 295 women and 233 men from the general Norwegian population. Analyses showed that the structural equation models for women and men did not differ significantly on the global level. The models for women and men, however, showed different patterns. Among men, church attendance and negative religious experiences predicted existential well-being; among women, positive and negative religious experiences were related to existential well-being, but church attendance was not. The present findings suggest that men may benefit more from active religiousness, whereas women may benefit more from affective religiousness. Comparing these results with research in other cultural contexts, we find that different operationalizations of church attendance yield the same types of patterns across cultural contexts. Consequently, the benefits of religiousness may be similar for women and men irrespective of cultural context.

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Religiousness and Social Support: A Study in Secular Norway

Cited by 13 publications

References 55 publications

The Effect of Religiosity on Life Satisfaction in a Secularized Context: Assessing the Relevance of Believing and Belonging

The Effect of Religiosity on Life Satisfaction in a Secularized Context: Assessing the Relevance of Believing and Belonging

Religiosity, religious acceptance, social interaction, and satisfaction with university experience

Church Attendance and Religious Experience

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