Matching Items (10)
Description
Depressive disorders are common among the general populations but are present at an even higher rate among college students. Some research suggests that new stressors during the transition to college may place young adults at increased risk of depressive disorders. In addition, depression in college students has been linked to a variety of risky behaviors such as alcohol use and risky sexual activity. Fortunately, research suggests that religiosity may act as a buffer and lead to lower levels of depressive symptoms and risky behavior. Current research has not adequately examined the relationship between religiosity, depression, and risky behavior among college students. In this study, depressive symptoms were measured using the 20-item Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale, while risky behaviors were measured using the section on risky sexual behavior from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance survey and the section on alcohol consumption from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey, both developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Four questions frequently used in literature to measure critical behaviors and attitudes were used to assess participants' religiosity. It was predicted that engagement in risky behaviors would be associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms while increased religiosity would be associated with lower levels. Additionally, increased religiosity would be associated with lower levels of engagement in risky behavior. Multiple regression analyses revealed that risky behavior were not significantly associated with higher depressive symptoms, while higher church attendance was associated with lower depressive symptoms. Although not considered a risky behavior, ever being forced to have sex was associated with higher depressive symptoms. Linear regression analyses revealed that increased religiosity was associated with increased engagement in risky behavior. These findings suggest that while depressive symptoms and risky behaviors are prevalent among college students, religiosity may act as a buffer and lead to lower levels of depression and risky behavior. Limitations, implications, and future research are discussed.
ContributorsLafarga, Derek Grady (Author) / Vargas, Perla A (Thesis advisor) / Hall, Deborah (Committee member) / Roberts, Nicole (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
While the suicide rate in Mexico is relatively low when compared to countries throughout the world, it is increasing at an alarming pace. Unfortunately, the amount of suicide research focused on Mexican populations is relatively scarce. Using a sample of high school students living in Guanajuato, Mexico, this study explored the relationship between recent suicidal ideation and three factors that previous research in other countries has connected to suicide: Migration aspirations, religiosity, and sexual behavior. Using multiple and logistic regression, the results indicated the following: 1) Recent suicidal ideation predicted increased migration aspirations, 2) higher levels of external religiosity predicted lower odds of recent suicidal ideation, and 3) stronger parent-child relationships predicted lower odds of recent suicidal ideation. The findings are discussed in light of the Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory, Bogenschneider's risk/protection model, and Stark's religious commitment theory.
ContributorsHoffman, Steven (Author) / Marsiglia, Flavio F (Thesis advisor) / Ayón, Cecilia (Committee member) / García-Pérez, Maria Hilda (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
ABSTRACT The major hypothesis tested in this research is that the psychological well-being and life satisfaction of elderly adult individuals can be predicted from religiosity (organizational and non-organizational religious beliefs and behaviors). The sample consisted of 142 adults between the ages of 65-90, with the majority in the 65-70 age group (48%) (SD = 1.176). The entire sample resides in the state of Arizona, in both urban and rural communities. Participants were administered a questionnaire which requested demographic information, and three instruments: the Duke University Religion Index (the DUREL), and the Affect Balance Scale and the Life Satisfaction Index - Z (LSIZ). Correlational and Multiple regression analyses were used to examine the relation between these adults' psychological well-being, life satisfaction and their religiosity. Independent t-tests were also used to examine possible sex, ethnic and religiosity effects on psychological well-being and life satisfaction. Findings revealed that psychological well-being and life satisfaction are higher when religiosity is higher, regardless of sex or ethnicity. These findings are consistent with those of previous research in this field.
ContributorsMoreno-Weinert, Inez (Author) / Moore, Elsie (Thesis advisor) / Nakagawa, Kathryn (Committee member) / Ladd, Becky (Committee member) / Cohen, Adam (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
A prior experiment by Li and colleagues found that when participants rated same sex faces in physical attractiveness, their self-reports of religiosity were higher in comparison to those that rated opposite sex faces. Could this be due to participants feeling their sexuality was threatened or misunderstood? In the current experiment, we attempted to replicate these findings and extend them by using a pseudo personality test that presented false feedback to participants. This feedback explained that their personalities were similar to homosexual or heterosexual people. Four hundred and fifty participants from Amazon Mturk were randomized into these conditions. We also measured homophobia, moral values, and the believability of the experiment. Results displayed no replication of the original findings. Men were more homophobic than women, while displaying lower moral values and religiosity. Those that self-reported being more homophobic also reported being more religious and moral. In conditions of sexual threat (homosexual personality, same sex faces) and sexual comfort (heterosexual personality, opposite sex faces), self-reports of moral values increased. Participants that reported believing the feedback displayed higher religiosity in both sexual threat and sexual comfort conditions. For a more concrete understanding of the relationship between religiosity, mating goals, and threats to sexuality, more research needs to be performed.
ContributorsHobaica, Steven Matthew (Author) / Cohen, Adam (Thesis director) / Knight, George (Committee member) / Neuberg, Steven (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / College of Public Programs (Contributor)
Created2014-12
Description
Recent research on alcohol use among LGB young adults indicates that sexual minority youth are at increased risk relative to their heterosexual peers. One possible contributing factor is that religiosity fails to provide the significant protection for LGB youth that it has been demonstrated to provide in general population samples. Although recent studies provide some support for this hypothesis, there is little research seeking to understand the reasons that religiosity may fail to protect against heavy drinking among LGB youth. The current study attempted to address this gap by examining relations among religiosity, age of self-identification, and alcohol use in a sample of 103 young adults self identified as lesbian, gay, or bisexual. Using multiple regression, we found that religiosity had an indirect effect on alcohol use operating through age of identification as LGB. Higher religiosity was associated with a later age of self-identification, which in turn, predicted greater increases in alcohol use among LGB youth during the transition from high school through college. Exploratory analyses found that gender significantly moderated the influence of age of self-identification on alcohol use such that a later age of self-identification was a risk factor for increased drinking for women, but not for men. The findings have important implications for understanding complex relations between religiosity and alcohol use among LGB youth. In addition, the findings may inform the development of religious support groups for LGB youth that will allow them to experience the benefits of religious involvement that heterosexual youth experience.
ContributorsOng, Thai Quang (Author) / Corbin, William (Thesis director) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Grzanka, Patrick (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2013-12
Description
This study examined the relation between Religiosity (a motivational system) and Working Memory Capacity (a cognitive system) to determine how they interact to promote goal-directed behavior. Participants completed a religiosity questionnaire and engaged in a battery of tasks that were used to assess their Working Memory Capacity (WMC) and overall ability to maintain goal-directed behavior. The Stroop task was used to examine the participants' ability to maintain goals in the face of interference. It was predicted that religiosity and WMC would be inversely related and that when we controlled for religiosity, WMC would be the only significant predictor of Stroop performance. Furthermore, we hypothesized that religiosity and Stoop would be inversely related, whereas WMC and Stroop would be positively correlated with one another. Religiosity and Stroop performance were each divided into three different components. Religiosity was divided into: Intrinsic Motivation, Extrinsic Motivation, and CARMA. Stroop Performance was measured through Stroop Accuracy, the Stroop Effect, and Post-Error Slowing. The results of our study supported each of our hypotheses. These findings demonstrated that there is a cognitive process underlying motivational systems, such as religion, which affect an individual's ability to sustain goal-directed behavior.
ContributorsFontes, Alejandra Maria (Author) / Brewer, Gene (Thesis director) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Cohen, Adam (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor)
Created2013-12
Description
In the current study, the author investigated whether sociosexual orientation interacted with an experimental manipulation of sex ratios previously used by Li et al. (2010) which showed that men and women report greater religiosity after viewing profiles of attractive members of their own sex. The author predicted that only people of restricted sociosexual orientation would be reporting greater religiosity after viewing profiles of attractive members of their own sex. A sample of 171 undergraduate students (85 men, Mage = 19.5) from a large Southwestern university participated in the study for course credit. Participants were first administered the Sociosexual Orientation Index (Simpson & Gangestad, 1991). Then, under the pretense of assisting psychology faculty in designing a dating website for incoming students, participants viewed a set of profiles (photo and description) of either attractive men or attractive women, after which they answered a series of questions on a religiosity scale developed for the current study. Results showed that sociosexual orientation did not interact significantly with the experimental manipulation. Additionally, the results of the current study failed to replicate those of Li et al. (2010). The author discusses possibilities for why the results of the current study failed to replicate the results of Li et al., and for alternative explanations of the potential role of sociosexual orientation in responding to shifting sex ratios.
ContributorsCottengaim, Isaiah John (Author) / Cohen, Adam (Thesis director) / Neuberg, Steven (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
This research examined the influence that Christian and Hindu religious beliefs have on environmentalism; specifically, whether beliefs that one would return to this earth after death (i.e., a belief in reincarnation) and how the world might end may explain more positive attitudes toward the environment. Participants were 533 self-identified Christians and Hindus in the United States and India who completed an online survey assessing religiosity, positive attitudes towards environmentalism, afterlife beliefs, and eschatological beliefs. Christians showed significantly lower ratings of environmentalism compared with Hindus. There were also significant negative differences found based on beliefs about heaven, eschatology beliefs, and increased religiosity in Christians, and significant positive differences found based on reincarnation, eschatology beliefs, and increased religiosity in Hindus. Overall, these results suggest that Christians are less likely to have positive attitudes toward environmentalism compared with Hindus, and that beliefs about the afterlife and the end of the world were significant predictors of environmentalist attitudes.
ContributorsParde, Madeline Morgan (Author) / Cohen, Adam (Thesis director) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Johnson, Kathryn (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
Relative to their heterosexual peers, sexual minority youth experience significant mental health disparities. This, in part, is due to prejudicial encounters (e.g., discrimination, victimization) because of their sexual minority status, and potential compounding stressors from prejudicial experiences related to their ethnic minority status, which could lead to worse mental health outcomes due to intersecting minority stress processes. Surprisingly, even though religiosity has been identified as a protective factor in the general literature for adolescents and young adults, few studies have examined whether religiosity serves as a potential buffer of the relations between stress and mental health outcomes in sexual minority Latinx youth. Thus, the goals of this study were to examine: (1) whether ethnic discrimination and sexuality discrimination have additive or interactive effects on depressive symptoms, and (2) whether self or family religiosity moderate the relations between discrimination and depressive symptoms, in a sample of 377 sexual minority Latinx youth (Mage = 20.29, SD = 2.61, age range 14-24). Results showed that there was no interactive effect between ethnic discrimination and sexuality discrimination in predicting depressive symptoms. There was a significant interaction between own religiosity and sexuality discrimination in predicting depressive symptoms, in which own religiosity was negatively associated with depressive symptoms only at low level of sexuality discrimination. No significant interaction emerged between own religiosity and ethnic discrimination. Finally, there were significant interactive effects between family religiosity and discrimination (ethnic and sexuality), in which family religiosity was negatively associated with depressive symptoms only at average and low level of discrimination. These findings highlight the importance of examining the intersection of religion, sexuality, and Latinx minority status in relation to mental health outcome.
ContributorsThamrin, Hardian (Author) / Gonzales, Nancy A. (Thesis advisor) / Toomey, Russell B. (Committee member) / Anderson, Samantha F. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
We know that growth and failure-enhancing mindsets and their benefits have been well defined in prior research. However, correlates and mechanisms to developing these mindsets have been understudied. A possible predictor of growth and failure enhancing mindsets is religiosity. We surveyed 353 students at Arizona State University on religiosity, growth mindset, and failure-enhancing mindset to see if religiosity holds any significant relation to growth and failure enhancing mindsets. We also included locus of control as a possible interaction in the model. Results suggest that there is a difference between religious and non-religious participants in their levels of growth mindset beliefs, with religious participants reporting higher growth mindset beliefs. Additionally, religiosity for Christ-based participants positively predicted growth mindset, but not failure-enhancing mindset. Future research should continue to probe the interaction between religiosity and locus of control, as well as compare different faiths and religious subgroups.
ContributorsMccullers, Caitlyn Taylor (Author) / Foster, Stacie (Thesis director) / Sechler, Casey (Committee member) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05