College of Behavioral and Social Sciences, California Baptist University, Riverside, CA, USA.
Division of Online and Professional Studies, California Baptist University, Riverside, CA, USA.
J Prev Interv Community. 2023 Jan-Mar;51(1):23-40. doi: 10.1080/10852352.2021.1924591. Epub 2021 May 19.
The church is commonly assumed to scaffold individuals' socially supportive relationships and prosocial behavior. If true, that would make the church an important support for individual development and community change, facilitating and fostering healthy relationships and positive interactions with others. In this study, we analyzed experimental data collected from 30 churches in three Latin American countries to assess the impact of an intervention targeting relational ministry practices on 6- to 14-year-old children's perceived support and prosocial behavior. Data were collected from children before ( = 710) and after ( = 612) the intervention in treatment ( 25 churches) and control ( = 5 churches) conditions. Results indicated that the introduction of socially supportive practices in church children's ministries increased children's prosocial behavior, an effect mediated by changes in perceived support. Implications for children's development and the church as a means of community change are discussed.
教会通常被认为是支撑个人社交关系和亲社会行为的重要力量。如果这是真的，那么教会将成为个体发展和社区变革的重要支持，促进和培养健康的人际关系以及与他人的积极互动。在这项研究中，我们分析了从三个拉丁美洲国家的 30 所教堂收集的实验数据，以评估一项针对关系事工实践的干预措施对 6 至 14 岁儿童感知支持和亲社会行为的影响。数据是在干预前（ = 710）和干预后（ = 612）从治疗组（ 25 所教堂）和对照组（ = 5 所教堂）的儿童中收集的。结果表明，在教会儿童事工中引入支持性的社交实践增加了儿童的亲社会行为，这种效果是通过感知支持的变化来介导的。讨论了这些发现对儿童发展和教会作为社区变革手段的意义。
