University of North Carolina, Department of Psychology, Greensboro, NC, USA.
Child Abuse Negl. 2010 Feb;34(2):84-94. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2009.07.002. Epub 2010 Feb 12.
Relatively little research has investigated the connection between religiosity and physical child abuse risk. Certain aspects, such as specific religious orientation or beliefs, and cognitive schema, such as socially conformist beliefs, may account for the connection that some have claimed increase religious parents' abuse potential. The current study examined whether greater Extrinsic religiosity, but not Intrinsic religiosity, was associated with elevated physical abuse potential. Those who hold a literal interpretation of the Bible and attend church more frequently were also expected to evidence increased abuse risk. Additionally, the role of social conformity in mediating or moderating the association between religiosity and abuse potential was investigated.
Two hundred and seven regularly attending Christians of various denominations completed self-report measures of religiosity, social conformity, and child abuse potential.
Findings indicate that Extrinsic religiosity was associated with increased physical abuse potential, with greater social conformity further moderating this association. Intrinsic religious orientation was not associated with abuse risk. Further, those who consider the Bible to be literally true were more socially conformist and evidenced greater abuse risk.
For those working with religious parents, the particular nature of religiosity needs to be considered when interpreting a connection between religiosity and abuse risk, as well as the potential attitudes the parent holds regarding the need for conformity. Given the complexity of religiosity, future research should explore other potential mediating and moderating factors that could further clarify its connection to physical abuse risk.
Clarifying how religiosity relates to child abuse risk has implications for professionals working with the vast numbers of parents for whom religion is a visible force in their daily lives. Findings from the present study suggest that professionals should consider the underlying motivation for an individual's religion as well as the importance the individual places on conformity. Religiosity per se may not be as critical to predicting physical abuse risk as selected approaches to religion or particular attitudes the religious individual assumes in their daily life.
关于宗教信仰与身体虐待儿童风险之间的联系，相关研究相对较少。某些方面，例如特定的宗教取向或信仰，以及认知模式，如社会遵从性信仰，可能解释了一些人声称宗教父母的虐待潜力增加的原因。本研究考察了超验宗教信仰（而不是内在宗教信仰）是否与更高的身体虐待潜力相关。那些对圣经有字面解释并更频繁地去教堂的人也被认为有更高的虐待风险。此外，还研究了社会遵从性在调解或调节宗教信仰与虐待潜力之间的关系中的作用。
207 名不同教派的定期参加基督教的成年人完成了宗教信仰、社会遵从性和虐待儿童潜力的自我报告测量。
研究结果表明，超验宗教信仰与身体虐待潜力增加有关，而更大的社会遵从性进一步调节了这种关联。内在宗教取向与虐待风险无关。此外，那些认为圣经是字面真实的人更具有社会遵从性，并且表现出更高的虐待风险。
对于那些与宗教父母合作的人来说，在解释宗教信仰与虐待风险之间的联系时，需要考虑宗教信仰的特定性质，以及父母对遵从性的潜在态度。鉴于宗教的复杂性，未来的研究应该探索其他潜在的中介和调节因素，以进一步阐明其与身体虐待风险的关系。
阐明宗教信仰如何与儿童虐待风险相关，这对与大量父母合作的专业人士具有重要意义，因为宗教是他们日常生活中一个显而易见的力量。本研究的结果表明，专业人士应该考虑个人宗教的潜在动机以及个人对遵从性的重视程度。宗教信仰本身可能不如个人对宗教的特定态度或特定态度对他们日常生活的影响重要，也不如个人对宗教的特定态度或特定态度对他们日常生活的影响重要。
