Parental Promotion of Volitional Functioning and Muslim-American Adolescents’ Character Development: The Mediating Role of Religiosity

• In Event: Poster Session 05
  In Poster Session: PS 05 Topic - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Abstract

Character is a core dimension of positive youth development and refers to an individual’s respect for societal and cultural norms, possession of standards for correct behaviors, and a sense of right and wrong (Lerner, 2018). Character development is particularly important for minority youth, such as Muslim American adolescents, because it highlights their existing strengths and provides internal resources, which can decrease their risk for adjustment difficulties (Park, 2005; Lerner, 2019). Parents’ promotion of their children’s volitional functioning (PPVF) through practices that help their offspring explore and act upon their true personal values and interests has been found to contribute to better child psychosocial adjustment outcomes, including character virtues (Soenens et al., 2007; Roth, 2008). Religious minorities’ character development might be intricately tied to their religiosity given that religion provides explicit messages about morality and socially appropriate behaviors (Ahmed, 2009). Hence, PPVF might promote Muslim-American adolescents’ character through their internalization of religiosity. However, whether specific dimensions of religiosity differentially mediate the associations between PPVF and adolescents’ character development is unknown. Thus, the present study examined whether PPVF promoted Muslim-American adolescents’ character, and if this relation was mediated by youth’s religious attitudes, struggles, and practices.
Participants included 218 Muslim-American adolescents (13-18-year-old, Mage=16.74, SDage=1.54; 59.3% female), who reported their perceptions of: (1) PPVF (Grolnick et al., 1991), (2) religious attitudes (Francis, Sahin, & Al-Failakawi, 2008), (3) religious practices, (3) religious struggles (Abu Raiya et al., 2008), and (4) character (Geldhoff et al., 2013) through an online survey.

Results from parallel mediation conducted in Process, SPSS (Figure 1) indicated that PPVF was positively associated with religious attitudes and struggles, which were in turn associated with higher levels of character. PPVF was linked to more religious practices, but religious practices did not predict character. Finally, the direct effect from PPVF to character remained significant after controlling for adolescents’ religiosity.

Our results indicated that parents who promoted self-volition had adolescents who were more likely to report being eager adherents of Islam, believe that God listens and helps them, engage in religious practices (e.g., praying), but also have greater doubts, conflicts, and unsettled feelings about their religion. Thus, youth may have more positive approaches to Islam, practice their religion more, and engage in self-endorsed interrogation of their religion in contexts in which parents support youth to explore their perspectives. In turn, adolescents’ religious attitudes and struggles were linked to a greater sense of integrity, respect for diversity, and more positive attitudes about helping, suggesting that adolescents’ religious struggles and positive attitudes may have helped them internalize Islamic teachings, which espouse social conscience, a sense of integrity, and good character (Al-Mateen & Afzal, 2004). In contrast, adolescents’ religious practices were not related to their character, maybe because engagement in religious activities by themselves might not be indicative of the internalization of religious virtues that promote character. These findings highlight the importance of supporting PPVF and self-determined aspects of religiosity to foster Muslim-American adolescents’ character development, and the need to consider specific dimensions of religiosity in these processes.

Authors

• Hatice Gursoy, University of Maryland - Baltimore County
  Presenting Author

• Merve Balkaya-Ince, Baylor University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Charissa S. L. Cheah, University of Maryland - Baltimore County
  Non-Presenting Author