Many facets of religiosity and regulatory virtues: Exploring the links between multiple dimensions of religiosity with self-control and patience among Muslim-American adolescents

Abstract

A growing body of literature suggests that religiosity is linked to regulatory virtues, such as self-control and patience, but most of this literature has been on Christian populations and has only focused on a single and more adaptive dimensions of religiosity, such as religious practices and beliefs. The current study sought to expand this literature by examining how the belief (e.g., religious struggles with doubts), belonging (e.g., religious identity), and bonding (e.g., anxious and avoidant attachment to Allah) dimensions of religion are uniquely associated with the behaving (e.g., inhibitory control, initiatory control, and patience) dimension of religion among a sample of Muslim American adolescents. Two-hundred forty-eight 13-18-year-old Muslims living across the United States filled out a cross-sectional survey online. Path analyses revealed that religious commitment and avoidant attachment to Allah were linked to initiatory self-control and patience, but not inhibitory self-control. In contrast, religious struggles and anxious attachment to Allah were linked to inhibitory self-control, but not initiatory self-control and patience. Finally, religious identity was not linked to self-control or patience when accounting for these other dimensions of religiosity. Our findings suggested that some dimensions of religiosity might indeed promote regulatory virtues, but other dimensions may undermine self-control and patience, which have important implications for theory and interventions targeted to promote regulatory virtues among youth.

Keywords

• Religiosity
• Self-control
• Patience
• Muslim American adolescents