Existential and Virtuous Effects of Religiosity on Mental Health and Aggressiveness among Offenders

Are Religious Practices Indirectly Related to Stress at Work Through the Tendency to Forgive? A Sample of Polish Employees

Religiosity has been a neglected factor in studies regarding the workplace in comparison to spirituality. Some available studies have indicated positive outcomes of religious commitment and intrinsically religious-oriented employees. There is however a lack of research explaining how religious commitment is related to occupational well-being. This study aimed to examine the mechanism of the relationship between religious practices and stress at work and the role of forgiveness as a moral virtue underlying this link. The participants in the study were 754 employees from Poland. The research used a cross-sectional design. The mechanism controlled for gender, denomination, age, education, and the level of position held, and the indirect relationship between prayer and mass attendance and stress at work through forgiveness was confirmed. Religious practices were positively related to a lack of revenge and avoidance motivation, which, in turn, was negatively correlated with stress at work. The role of religious commitment in occupational well-being was discussed, considering socio-cultural conditioning, and the theoretical and practical implications were presented.

Spirituality, Organizational Gratefulness, and Well-Being Among Polish Workers

The relationship between spirituality at work and occupational and subjective well-being is not a well-recognized area of research. Many studies have indicated the beneficial effects of spiritual activities on employees' flourishing, but the mechanisms of this influence are still not sufficiently explained. This study aimed to verify the proposed mechanisms that underlie employees' spirituality, stress at work, and life satisfaction, and the role of gratitude toward the organization in these relationships. It was assumed that employees' spirituality is indirectly related to stress at work via gratitude toward the organization. In turn, gratitude toward the organization is directly and indirectly related to life satisfaction through stress at work. The study encompassed 754 individuals working in different companies in Poland. In a sample of women, both spirituality dimensions were indirectly related to stress at work and life satisfaction. Among men, only the secular dimension of spirituality, such as attitude toward coworkers, was indirectly related to stress at work and life satisfaction. Gratitude toward the organization was negatively directly related to stress at work and, through this variable, indirectly positively related to life satisfaction. The benefits of employees' spirituality for their well-being were confirmed, emphasizing a grateful attitude toward the organization as a significant factor in this relationship.

Religion, Accountability, and the Risk of Aggressive Misconduct Among Prisoners: Preliminary Evidence of Restorative Rehabilitation

Prior research has found inverse relationship between religious involvement and misconduct among prisoners. In this study, we examined the mediating role of accountability as welcoming responsibility for one's actions with respect to the transcendent (e.g., God or a higher power) and other people. We applied structural equation modeling to analyze data from surveys with 339 individuals (108 females and 231 males) incarcerated at three facilities in Texas. We found that prisoner religiosity was positively related to transcendent accountability, which was in turn positively associated with human accountability. Human accountability was then positively associated with empathy and negatively associated with impulsivity. Via impulsivity, human accountability was indirectly and inversely related to anger, depression, and anxiety. Further, the other-directed negative emotion (anger) was positively associated with the risk of other-directed, aggressive misconduct. The results suggest that accountability as forward-looking, active responsibility may play an important role in the restorative rehabilitation of prisoners.

Religion and Misconduct Among Prison Inmates in South Korea

Although faith-based programs are present in most prisons for offender rehabilitation, the effect of religion on prison inmates remains an understudied topic. In addition, existing research shows mixed results about the religious effect. The present study intends to not only advance the understanding of inmate's prison misconduct but also examine whether religion is likely to contribute to reducing the risk of misconduct using a non-Western sample of inmates. To assess the relationship between inmates' religion and prison misconduct, we applied negative binomial regression to analyze survey data from 986 Korean adult male inmates. Results showed that inmates who had a religious affiliation with Catholicism or Buddhism were less likely to report prison misconduct than those who had no religion. In addition, the inverse relationship was observed whether inmates had participated in religion before incarceration or came to participate in religion while incarcerated, depending on religious denomination.

Religion and Responsibility-Taking Among Offenders in Colombia and South Africa: A Qualitative Assessment of a Faith-Based Program in Prison

This paper examines whether religion contributes to offenders taking responsibility for crimes. Specifically, we assessed whether participation in The Prisoner's Journey (TPJ), a bible study program, increased or decreased responsibility-taking. We also examined whether religious offenders that did not participate in TPJ were likely to take responsibility for their offenses. For this study, we conducted a quasi-experiment in two Colombian and five South African prisons from 2018 to 2019, collecting data from personal interviews with a total of 73 inmates-42 TPJ participants and 31 non-participants-before and after the program. Offenders frequently offered subtle accounts of responsibility that incorporated their own agency with other factors. Highly religious offenders were equally likely to take responsibility, and in some cases participation in TPJ heightened responsibility. In sum, this paper presents evidence that religious beliefs and practice are commensurate with responsibility-taking and desistance from crime.

Forgotten Variables and Older Men in Custody: Negative Childhood Events, Forgiveness, and Religiosity

The study tested a mediational model linking negative childhood events through forgiveness of self and social support to religiosity using data from a convenience sample of 261 men aged 45-82 years residing behind prison walls. The Developmental Model of Adaptation provided the study's conceptual model for investigating the associations among the study variables. The study tested a mediational model linking the distal past (negative childhood events) to the outcome, religiosity, through forgiveness, and social support. The final model demonstrated the association of negative childhood events with religiosity through forgiveness of self (not forgiveness of others or situation) and social support. The study's findings suggest that at intake and during time in confinement, middle-aged and older men in prison should be assessed for and offered interventions aimed at helping them cope with the trauma of childhood events, achieve self-forgiveness, seek social support, and express religiosity as important for sustaining their well-being.

Religion and Life Satisfaction of Polish Female Students Representing Roman Catholic Affiliation: Test of Empirical Model

Religion is an important factor of life satisfaction for adolescents. This relationship is complex and depends on religiousness indicators used, religious affiliation, sex, age, and some cultural aspects. The aim of the study was to examine whether positive religious coping moderates the relationships between religious practices, as well as God’s support and life satisfaction. Additionally, the mediating role of religious commitment between faith and life satisfaction was tested. Methods: The sample in this study consisted of 315 Polish Roman Catholic female students. The following tools were used: the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire (SCSORFQ), the Brief Religious Coping Scale (Brief RCOPE), the Religious Support Scale (RSS), and two one-item measures regarding frequency of prayer and Mass attendance. Results: The moderating role of positive religious coping between prayer, as well as God’s support and life satisfaction, was confirmed. Additionally, positive religious coping, God’s support, prayer, and Mass attendance mediated between faith and life satisfaction. Conclusion: The research has proven that faith negatively influenced adolescents’ life satisfaction both directly and directly through positive religious coping and Mass attendance. A beneficial indirect effect of faith on life satisfaction through God’s support and prayer was confirmed. It was also found that using positive religious coping with an above-average frequency of religious practices improved the life satisfaction among female students.

Studying Religiosity and Spirituality: A Review of Macro, Micro, and Meso-Level Approaches

This paper seeks to advance the global study of religiosity and spirituality by conducting a meta-analysis of major approaches in the field. While the field, and thus the collected publications, are dominated by Western approaches, particular attention is paid in this analysis to publications from geographies that are not from the United States or Western Europe, especially these world regions: Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Similarly, while the study of religiosity is considerably centered around Christianity, this analysis extends beyond Christianity, to the extent possible in extant studies, to include publications investigating other world religious traditions, such as African spirituality, African witchcraft, Afro-Caribbean religious traditions, Buddhism, Confucianism, folk religions, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Mormonism, Neo-paganism, New Religious Movements (NRMs), Shamanism, Sikhism, Spiritism, Taoism, and spirituality generally. A total of 530 publications were reviewed, and the studies are categorized by unit of analysis into: Macro, micro, and meso-level. Measurement constructs include religious demography, culture, belonging, behaving, believing, bonding, religious salience, spiritual identities, religious networks, occupations, congregations, denominations, and faith-based organizations. Non-Western sources and approaches are analyzed toward furthering future research in under-studied world regions. Implications are drawn for the field, such as the need to geo-code publications at the country level.

Prisoners Helping Prisoners Change: A Study of Inmate Field Ministers Within Texas Prisons

Research on incarcerated offenders trained to help prisoners change is rare because programs that equip inmates with practical capacities for helping others rehabilitate in prison hardly exist. An exception is the Field Ministry program in Texas, which enlists inmates who have graduated from a prison-based seminary to work as "Field Ministers" and serve other inmates in various capacities. We hypothesize that inmate exposure to Field Ministers is inversely related to antisocial factors and positively to prosocial ones. We applied manifest-variable structural equation modeling to analyze data from a survey of a random sample of male inmates at three maximum-security prisons where the Field Ministry program operated. We found that inmates exposed more frequently to the Field Ministry and for a longer time period tended to report lower levels of criminological risk factors and aggressiveness and higher levels of virtues and predictors of human agency as well as religiosity and spirituality.