As emerging adult college students ponder their religious/spiritual beliefs and identities, those in religiously diverse countries (e.g. the USA) often encounter beliefs different from their own. These encounters can prompt new perspectives on their own beliefs and elicit responses from rejection to incorporation of the diverging belief, thus…

As a post-communist country still transitioning from a culture of segregation of people with disability, Romania marks a distinct cultural space for studying the attitudes towards intellectual disability. In the current study, we investigated a prediction model which included age, gender, and religiosity as variables accounting for the variations…

Identifying developmental patterns in intergroup contact and its relation with bias is crucial for improving prevention strategies around intergroup relations. This study applied time-varying effects modeling (TVEM) to examine age-based changes in relations between contact and bias in a divided community that included 667 youth (M age = 15.74, SD…

This paper is based on a quantitative research study of Christian adolescents in junior and senior high schools, in 12 Protestant churches in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, concerning their perceptions about LGBTQ+ sexualities. Using a "normalcy" perspective from disability studies, the study finds heterosexuality is normative; other sexual…

Sectarianism is perceived as a serious issue in Scotland despite a lack of concrete evidence, according to the Advisory Group on Tackling Sectarianism. This paper addresses one of the gaps in knowledge, the attitudes of Catholic school pupils. Our research was designed to profile sectarian attitudes among a sample of Catholic school pupils in…

The present study assesses how education impacts religiosity. Education is instrumented using the changes in the Canadian school leaving age laws. The data are from the Canadian General Social Surveys collected between 1990 and 2011. The effects of education on both affiliation status and religious attendance are considered. Education is found to…

Adolescents are often exposed to the lasting effects of political conflict. Complementing existing research on negative outcomes in these settings, this article focuses on the role of the family (N = 731 mother/adolescent dyads, 51% female, M = 14.72, SD = 1.99, years old at Time 1) in promoting constructive youth outcomes in response to perceived…

Religion in public schools has long been a controversial issue. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1962 that teachers and administrators cannot lead prayers in public schools, and a decision in 2000 barred school districts from sponsoring student-led prayers at football games. At the same time, the court has held that students retain a First…

Drawing on data from the 2011 Australian National Church Life Survey, this study was designed to assess the connection between religious affect (as a measure of Christian commitment) and global happiness (as a measure of personal well being) among a sample of 6,194 young churchgoers in Australia between the ages of 8 and 14 years, attending a…

The protective role of strength of group identity was examined for youth in a context of protracted political conflict. Participants included 814 adolescents (M[subscript age] = 13.61, SD = 1.99 at Time 1) participating in a longitudinal study in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Utilizing hierarchical linear modeling, the results show that the effect of…

Based on individual-level data from 2008 Afro-barometer survey, this study explores the relationship between religion (religious affiliation and religious importance) and trust (interpersonal and institutional) among Ghanaians. Employing hierarchical multiple regression technique, our analyses reveal a positive relationship between religious…

The Protestant ministers' occupational characteristics affect their retirement experience. Unlike most retirees, Protestant ministers tend to experience residential and church moves. A national study was conducted to examine the effects of retirement experienced by retired ministers and anticipated by active ministers of the Presbyterian Church in…

The development of the concept of God was assessed among 120 children between the ages of 5 to 16 years who attended private Protestant and Catholic day schools in the San Diego area. All children participated in a semi-clinical interview. Twelve interview questions were asked as the first step of a probing technique used to initiate a dialogue…

Reports on a study of pupils (n=1549) aged 13 to 16 attending 12 Protestant and 12 Catholic schools in Northern Ireland and their attitudes toward science. Concludes that girls, oldest students, and pupils in Catholic schools hold less positive attitudes toward science in the school curriculum and towards science as a career. Contains 36…

The percentage of the population involved in the Christian church in New Zealand has been declining since the middle of the 1960s. Most seriously affected has been the mainline Protestant denominations such as Presbyterian, Anglican and Methodist. This article analyses and presents data collected by the National Church Life Survey New Zealand 2001…