Poster #142 - Religious Coping and Delinquent Behavior: Moderated Mediation Roles of Religion Affiliation and Prosocial Moral Reasoning.

• In Event: 2-002 - Special Poster Session 05 with Continental Breakfast Reception
  In Poster Session: PS 05 - International Section

Integrative Statement

Religion has been shown to have a positive impact for developing adolescents; however, the processes underlying this relation are not well known. In his almighty prosocial hypothesis Anazonwu (2017) proposed that central to every known world religion is the believe that to overcome overwhelming problems people sought the help of the almighty (God) whom they believe require of them some prosocial behavior in order to attract the help from the almighty. Thus religion coping create platform for development of prosocial reasoning which in turn propagate prosocial actions while reducing antisocial acts. Similarly, developmental system theory (Lerner, 2006) assumed that in every individual three mechanisms: plasticity (potential to change), context (environment) and developmental regulation (learnable principles) interact to describe the direction of the transactions between individuals and their various embedded socio-cultural context of development which will also determine other developmental outcomes. Based on these two theoretical assumptions, the present study examined whether prosocial moral reasoning(developmental regulation) was the mechanism in the negative correlation between religious coping (plasticity) and delinquent behaviors (outcome), and if religious affiliation(context) (Christianity and Islam) moderated these paths. Based on previous research (Anazonwu, 2017; Hardy & Carlo, 2005; Mustapha, 2013; Shepperd, Miller & Smith 2015), it was hypothesized that the link from prosocial moral reasoning to lower delinquent behaviors would be stronger for Muslim compared to Christian youth. These questions were tested among Nigerian adolescence, an important sample because of high inter-religious and inter-ethnic tension among youth in this country. Two hundred and ninety eight adolescents (Mage = 16.03years, SD = 1.76; boys =176, girls =122; 46.3% Muslim, 53.7% Christian) were sampled using questionnaires (see Table 1) in post-primary schools in Nigeria (33.2% Northwest region- Hausa, 31.9% Southeast region- Igbo and 33.2% Southwest region- Yoruba. Modreated mediation (Hayes, 2013) showed that prosocial moral reasoning mediated the relationship between religious coping and delinquent behaviors that is; greater religious coping was linked with higher prosocial moral reasoning, which in turn predicted fewer delinquent behaviors (Figure 1). Religious coping interacted with religion affiliation to influence delinquent behavior; there was a stronger link between these two constructs for Muslim compared to Christian youth. Finally, examining the overall indirect effects revealed there was significant mediation for both Christian and Muslim youth. Thus, interventions aiming to reduce youth delinquent behaviors should consider promoting prosocial moral reasoning, particularly among the various religions (i.e., Christian/Muslim) communities.

Authors

• Chidozie Edwin Nwafor, Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka
  Presenting Author

• Charles Okechukwu Anazonwu, Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka
  Non-Presenting Author

• Harry Obi-Nwosu, Department of Psychology Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka
  Non-Presenting Author