Date of Graduation
2016
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Type
MS
College
Eberly College of Arts and Sciences
Department
Psychology
Committee Chair
Aaron Metzger
Committee Co-Chair
Carol Markstrom
Committee Member
Julie Patrick
Abstract
Religious behavior and spirituality have been consistently found to be associated with a host of positive youth outcomes including increased grade point average (Ferris, Oosterhoff, & Metzger, 2013) and community service (Paxton, Reith, & Glanville, 2014) and decreased substance use (Milot & Ludden, 2009). However, few studies have investigated how religious behavior and spirituality uniquely and interactively predict these outcomes, as well as how these associations vary across city and rural contexts. The current study sought to investigate how religious behavior and spirituality predict youth outcomes in both rural and city youth populations. Participants included 743 youth from a mid-sized University city community (n = 367) and rural community (n = 376) in a mid-Atlantic state (Mage= 15.87, 90% Caucasian, 44% male). Participants completed measures of religious behavior, spirituality, grade point average, community service, substance use, and basic demographic information. Results indicated that religious behavior was positively associated with GPA, but only for youth who were high in spirituality. Religious behavior was also positively associated with community service. Finally, religious behavior was positively associated with substance use for youth who lived in a city and were also low in spirituality.
Recommended Citation
Olson, Rebecca, "Disaggregating Behavioral and Psychological Components of Religious and Spiritual Development across Adolescence: Variations by Geographic Location" (2016). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 6351.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/6351