The influence of family religious practice on religiosity and personality in emerging adulthood

Abstract

The study addresses the problem of the relationship between religious practices in the family and the level of religious life during the emerging adulthood. Religious activities in the family assessed retrospectively by the subjects (N = 240) were measured using the FAITHS scale, while their religiosity was diagnosed using the Post-Critical Belief Scale, the Centrality of Religiosity Scale, the Scale of Coherence of Religious Convictions, the Religious Identity Scale, the Rejection of Christianity Scale, the Confidence in Faith Scale, self-assessment of the motivation of religious practices, the Moral Competency Inventory (some aspects of moral intelligence), as well as the frequency of use of the Bible. Personality was also diagnosed using the Francis Psychological Type and Emotional Temperament Scales, the Questionnaire to measure the Big Five, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and the Future Anxiety Scale.
The correlation of the frequency and importance of religious practices with the variables of religiosity and personality showed a link between most aspects of religiosity and religious activities, especially their importance, and only with a few variables among the personality variables; only psychological preferences and personality traits. As a result of grouping individuals by the method of cluster analysis in terms of combined scores in assessing the frequency and validity of activities in the family, they were compared in terms of the dependent variables studied (religiosity and personality). In general, the two groups that differed significantly in the level of religious activities also differed in the level of dependent variables (primarily religiosity). At the third stage, a regression analysis was used, as a result of which it was found that separately the frequency of religious activities (FAITHS-CZ) undertaken in the family as well as the importance attributed to them (FAITHS-WA) almost equally significantly explain the level of religiosity of the studied variables. On the other hand, in the case of combining both predictors, the explanatory function is taken over by the meaning attributed to them, i.e. that the important predictor for religiosity in almost all cases (except for the centrality of religiosity) turns out to be the meaning of religious activities (FAITHS-WA).
FAITHS-frequency and FAITHS-importance correlate only at a low level with certain dimensions among personality variables (FPTETS and BFM) in a slight intensity; FAITHS-importance explains the trait of agreeableness and extroversion and FAITHS-frequency the trait of emotional stability. The research shows the need for a more detailed approach to measuring religious practices in the family, and for the pastoral preparation of families to fulfill the task of transmitting the faith.