Religiousness, Race, and Psychological Well-Being: Exploring Social Psychological Mediators

Research and theory combine to suggest that the relationship between religious belief and psychological well-being should be more positive among Black than among White individuals. Further, this relationship should be mediated by social psychological aspects of religion that have positive implications for well-being, such as self-enhancing religious attributions and a positive social identity associated with one's religious affiliation. These predictions were examined in a sample of 66 Black and 59 White university students. Religious belief salience and psychological well-being were moderately positively correlated, but only among Black subjects. The relationship between religious belief and well-being was partially mediated by attributions to God that enhance life meaning and positive social identification resulting from one's religious affiliation, again only among Black subjects. Implications of these results for the self-maintenance of Black college students are discussed.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/69072/2/10.1177_01461672952110004.pd

Gender Differences in Parental Strain

This article examines gender differences in the strains associated with parenting. We hypothesize that due to the different role experiences of being a parent, mothers are more likely than fathers to experience greater role strain. Women who parent are more likely than their male counterparts to be exposed to strain-inducing experiences because they spend more time in child care and other household chores, because they are more likely to be doing so as a “single-parent,” because they are more likely to be juggling family responsibilities and work commitments, and because being a parent has greater role salience for women. We also hypothesize that by taking into account the different role experiences of mothers and fathers we can partially account for the expected gender differences in parental strain. These hypotheses are explored using survey data from a probability sample of Detroit parents obtained in 1982-83 (n = 1,040) which assessed their parental role experiences and psychological well-being. The results confirm the hypothesized difference between mothers and fathers in reported strain, among both blacks and whites, with mothers expressing significantly greater role demands and parental strain than fathers. We find, however, that little of this difference is attributable to the differential role experiences we analyzed. We conclude that gender differences in parental strain may be linked more strongly to “gender role” than “parental role,” in that women are socialized more than men into taking responsibilities for relationships and are therefore more likely to experience the greater stresses associated with intimacy and emotional involvement with others. The greater strains of parenting felt by mothers as opposed to fathers may, thus, be due as much to the differential orientations they bring to the parental role as it is due to the objectively-assessed differences in role experience.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/67967/2/10.1177_019251389010004004.pd

Life History Strategy and Young Adult Substance Use

This study tested whether life history strategy (LHS) and its intergenerational transmission could explain young adult use of common psychoactive substances. We tested a sequential structural equation model using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. During young adulthood, fast LHS explained 61% of the variance in overall liability for substance use. Faster parent LHS predicted poorer health and lesser alcohol use, greater neuroticism and cigarette smoking, but did not predict fast LHS or overall liability for substance use among young adults. Young adult neuroticism was independent of substance use controlling for fast LHS. The surprising finding of independence between parent and child LHS casts some uncertainty upon the identity of the parent and child LHS variables. Fast LHS may be the primary driver of young adult use of common psychoactive substances. However, it is possible that the young adult fast LHS variable is better defined as young adult mating competition. We discuss our findings in depth, chart out some intriguing new directions for life history research that may clarify the dimensionality of LHS and its mediation of the intergenerational transmission of substance use, and discuss implications for substance abuse prevention and treatment