The Role of Religion in Parenting Satisfaction and Parenting Stress Among Young Parents

Abstract

Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, we examine how religious characteristics affect parenting satisfaction and stress among young parents, and how these relationships vary by gender and relationship status. Results indicate that religiosity is associated with higher parenting satisfaction, and differences across religious traditions are observed for parenting stress. These relationships are generally not moderated by gender or relationship status, suggesting religion influences parenting satisfaction and stress similarly across these contexts. Religion has a generally positive influence on parenting attitudes among young parents-both mothers and fathers-in diverse family structures.

Family Formation and Close Social Ties Within Religious Congregations

“…One need is moral instruction for children, a common reason parents increase their religious attendance (Ingersoll‐Dayton, Krause, & Morgan, ). Another pragmatic function of religious communities is their ability to buffer family stressors (Henderson, Uecker, & Stroope, ). Unlike marriage, which is initially met with higher psychological and marital benefits (Musick & Bumpass, ; VanLaningham et al, ), childrearing tends to yield great psychological (Evenson & Simon, ), marital (Crohan, ), and financial costs (Stanca, ), particularly if the parents decide to have multiple children (Lavee, Sharlin, & Katz, ; Pollmann‐Schult, ).…”

Religiusitas dan stres pengasuhan pada ibu dengan anak autis

“…Selain itu menurut Deckard (dalam Fitriani, 2013) stres pengasuhan merupakan suatu keadaan yang meliputi aversive psychology dan reaksi fisiologis yang muncul dari usaha untuk beradaptasi atau menyesuaikan diri dengan tuntutan yang ada dalam pengasuhan, dimana stress pengasuhan ini meliputi serangkaian proses. Stres pengasuhan merupakan proses yang mengarah pada reaksi permusuhan psikologis dan fisiologis yang timbul dari upaya untuk beradaptasi dengan tuntutan sebagai orangtua (Henderson, Uecker, & Stroope, 2016) Abidin et al, (1995) menyebutkan terdapat tiga aspek stress pengasuhan antara lain aspek pengalaman stres orangtua, dalam hal ini menunjukkan pengalaman stres orang tua dalam pengasuhan anak serta perasaan personal yang timbul setelah kehadiran anak. Selanjutnya aspek perilaku anak yang sulit, hasil wawancara singkat peneliti pada salah satu ibu dengan anak autis yang berada di Malang.…”

“…Sejauh mana orang tua melihat religiusitas sebagai bagian penting dari kehidupan mereka juga dapat mempengaruhi hasil pada orang tua. Henderson et al, (2016) menunjukkan bahwa religiusitas lebih terkait dengan penurunan stres orangtua dan kepuasan orangtua yang lebih besar. Religiusitas adalah hal yang sangat penting dan lebih banyak bermanfaat untuk pengasuhan dengan cara yang positif.…”

Are Religious Parents More Satisfied Parents? Individual- and Couple-Level Religious Correlates of Parenting Satisfaction

“…Because religious traditions in the United States often promote both childbearing and childrearing as important aspects of one’s identity (Edgell, 2006; Wilcox, 2004), those who are more religious may be more likely to view their parenting in a positive light. Past research has shown this to be the case with respect to individual religious characteristics among select samples of parents such as low-income urban women (Hill, Burdette, Regnerus, & Angel, 2008), urban single mothers (Petts, 2012), and young mothers and fathers (Henderson, Uecker, & Stroope, 2016). But these studies are limited in at least three important ways: (1) they do not analyze a nationally representative sample of parents; (2) they treat religion as an individual-level factor only, ignoring the role of religious homogamy (or heterogamy) at the couple-level; and (3) they are unable to specify the mechanism(s) through which religious factors influence parenting satisfaction.…”

“…Using data from the fourth wave of the Baylor Religion Survey, collected in 2014, we seek to overcome each of these three limitations. We begin by replicating with a nationally representative sample of parents the analysis of previous work on the relationship between individual religious characteristics and parenting satisfaction (e.g., Henderson et al, 2016). Then, for parents in a married or cohabiting relationship, we create couple-level measures of religious heterogamy, including denominational heterogamy, heterogamous religious service attendance, and heterogamous religious salience.…”