Understanding Associations between Religious Beliefs and White Privilege Attitudes

Scholars have grappled with how religion in the United States shapes attitudes toward racial inequality, often by focusing on racial inequality as out-group disadvantage. 

The current study extends this research by moving beyond racial inequality as out-group disadvantage to examine how religious conservatism and sanctification of social justice (i.e., attributing spiritual or religious significance to working for social justice) are associated with attitudes toward racial in-group advantage: white privilege. 

Using canonical correlation analysis with 475 white Catholic and Protestant students, results showed religious beliefs and white privilege attitudes were connected in two ways: 

1. sanctification of social justice was positively associated with a dimension defined by greater willingness to confront white privilege and greater white privilege remorse and awareness and 
2. religious conservatism was negatively associated with a dimension defined by greater awareness of white privilege. 

This shows how religion may facilitate or inhibit awareness and action related to white privilege.

Full PDF article at:   https://goo.gl/xIArSw  Abstract:  http://goo.gl/QVbqke

By:  Nathan R. Todd1, Rachael L. Suffrin2, Elizabeth A. McConnell2, Charlynn A. Odahl-Ruan2

¹University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign, Champaign, IL, USA

²DePaul University, Chicago, IL, USA

Nathan R. Todd, Department of Psychology, University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign, 603 East Daniel Street, Champaign, IL 61820, USA. Email: ntodd2@illinois.edu

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Religious Denomination, Religious Involvement, and Modern Contraceptive Use in Southern Mozambique

The relationship between contraceptive use and religion remains a subject of considerable debate. This article argues that this relationship is rooted in context-specific institutional and organizational aspects of religious belonging and involvement. Drawing upon unique recent data from a population-based survey of women conducted in a predominantly Christian high-fertility area of Mozambique, this study examines the connections between religion and contraception from two complementary angles. First, differences in current use of modern contraceptives across main denominational groups are analyzed. The results show higher prevalence of modern contraceptive use among Catholics and, to a lesser extent, traditional Protestants net of other individual- and community-level factors. Second, an analysis of religious involvement reveals that frequent church attendance has a net positive association with modern contraceptive use regardless of denominational affiliation. These findings are situated within the historical context of religious, demographic, and socio-political dynamics of Mozambique and similar sub-Saharan settings...

Catholics’ “contraceptive advantage” may seem counterintuitive given the Church’s official position on use of artificial methods of birth control. Although as Hirsch (2008) illustrated with her study in rural Mexico, most Catholics, even those living in religiously conservative settings, find ways to reconcile contraceptive use with their faith and the Vatican’s official guidelines. Furthermore, in sub-Saharan Africa, higher contraceptive prevalence among Catholics and Protestants, compared with other religious groups, is not unusual (Heaton 2011). What makes Roman Catholics and Protestants more receptive to contraceptive technologies? I propose that their contraceptive edge owes to a large extent to their connections with the state and especially the local medical establishment...

TABLE 3

Percentage of nonpregnant women practicing modern contraception, by religious affiliation and frequency of church attendance, Chibuto, Mozambique, 2008

Characteristic	(n)	Practices modern contraception (percent)
Religious affiliation
Affiliated with a religion or church (any denomination)	(1,554)	23.6
Roman Catholic	(225)	32.4
Traditional Protestant	(176)	30.1
Apostolic	(215)	23.3
Zionist	(753)	20.1
Pentecostal	(185)	20.0
Nonaffiliated	(203)	13.8
Attended church in past two weeks a
Did not attend	(411)	20.2
1–2 times	(668)	22.9
3+ times	(488)	27.5
Total	(1,757)	22.3

aIncludes only participants having a religious affiliation (n = 1,567).

Full article at: http://goo.gl/KGSaI8

By: Victor Agadjanian

 Center for Population Dynamics, T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287

  

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The Role of Religiousness and Gender in Sexuality among Mexican Adolescents

This study examined the role of religiousness and gender in age at first intercourse, and sexual expectations and values in Mexico, a macrocontext where the majority is Mexican and Catholic (83%). 

Participants were Catholic and nonreligious adolescents (54% girls) attending middle (71%) or high school. Findings indicated that Catholic adolescents engaged in sexual intercourse at later ages than nonreligious adolescents. Both religious attendance and importance of religion and values in sexual decision making were associated with more conservative sexual values. Boys who were raised Catholic were more likely to endorse female virginity values and were less likely to expect to wait to have sex until married than nonreligious boys. These associations were not significant among girls. 

Catholic boys may be more likely to internalize sexual double standard beliefs regarding premarital sex than nonreligious boys. This study expands our understanding of the role of religiousness in Mexican adolescents' sexuality.

Purchase full article at: http://goo.gl/jCe32s

By: Espinosa-Hernández G1, Bissell-Havran J2, Nunn A3.

• 1a Psychology Department , University of North Carolina , Wilmington.
• 2b Psychology Department , Walden University.
• 3c Department of Public and International Affairs , University of North Carolina , Wilmington. 

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