Black-White variations in the lagged reciprocal relationship between religiosity and perceived control

Abstract

This national longitudinal data-based multi-population LISREL study, the most comprehensive assessment to date of racial variations in the (in)congruity between religiosity and perceived control, gauges variation among Black and White Americans in the lagged reciprocal relationship between religiosity dimensions and mastery. Racial variation in the reciprocal religiosity-perceived control relationship has hitherto gone un-addressed. Prior investigations have also typically utilised cross-sectional samples – often from regional or age-specific populations. The observed public religiosity-mastery relationship over time exhibits signs of mutual reinforcement among Blacks: public religiosity enhances Blacks’ subsequent mastery, while prior mastery borderline-significantly enhances their public religiosity. The subjective religiosity-mastery relationship among Whites evinces a marginally countervailing pattern: Subjective religiosity diminishes Whites’ mastery, while mastery borderline-significantly enhances their subjective religiosity. The inordinately positive public religiosity-effect on Blacks’ mastery notably constitutes solid support for the “resource compensation” perspective on the impact of religiosity on mastery across dominant and subordinate groups.

Empowerment or dependency? The religion/religiosity–mastery relationship.

“…However, persons residing in Canadian territories or full-time residents of institutions were not included within the sampling frame. By selecting a Canadian dataset, the authors were able to address the dearth of Canadian studies addressing R/Rmastery, as the majority of studies focus on American data (Ai et al, 2005a(Ai et al, , 2005bGreenfield et al, 2009;Jang et al, 2003;Oates, 2013;Schieman et al, 2005Schieman et al, , 2006. To be included in the current study, participants had to answer all relevant questions and be 20 years of age or older (e.g., 15-year-olds may attend church due to familial obligation).…”

“…Social support represented an important confounding variable in the R/Rmastery literature. Because R/R promotes social support (Horning, Davis, Stirrat, & Cornwell, 2011), and because social support positively predicts mastery (Oates, 2013), it is possible that the relationship between R/R-mastery is confounded by social support. While social support is occasionally controlled for within the R/R-mastery literature (e.g., Oates, 2013), it often is not (e.g., Acevedo, 2008;Schieman et al, 2003Schieman et al, , 2006, which may contribute to the confusion within this body of research.…”

“…In general, there has been a muted effort to determine if assessing R/R variables in an index, versus assessing R/R variables individually produces any substantive differences. It is not uncommon to see studies opt for either approach without a detailed discussion surrounding their relative merits (Acevedo, 2008; Jang et al, 2003; Oates, 2013). These analytical differences may contribute to the lack of consistency within the literature, although the consequences of one approach over the other has not been explicitly evaluated.…”

“…Part of this nonuniformity in findings, may be related to studies using different conceptualisations of R/R. Studies may examine R/R using assessments of spirituality (Greenfield et al, 2009); single item measures assessing attendance, prayer/meditation, or subjective religiosity (Ai et al, 2005b;Greenfield et al, 2009;Liu, 2009;Schieman et al, 2005Schieman et al, , 2006; or indices of R/R (Ai et al, 2005a;Jang et al, 2003;Oates, 2013;Schieman et al, 2003). On one level, if studies are using different conceptualisations of R/R and are reaching different conclusions, then this is not necessarily surprising.…”

“…Praying/meditating has been positively (Ai et al, 2005a(Ai et al, , 2005bLiu, 2009;Schieman et al, 2006), nonsignifi-cantly (Ellison & Burdette, 2011;Schieman et al, 2005), and negatively (Liu, 2009) linked to mastery constructs. And perceived religiosity (i.e., importance of religiosity, perception of religiousness) has been negatively (Ai et al, 2005a(Ai et al, , 2005b linked to mastery constructs, while indices of religiosity have been positively linked to mastery (Oates, 2013). Whereas R/R often has a positive relationship with other indicators of psychological wellbeing, the relationship that R/R has with mastery is nonuniform.…”