The Role of Religiosity in African American Preadolescent Aggression

Abstract

This study examined the role of parent and preadolescent religiosity in aggression among African American preadolescents with moderate to high aggression. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to determine (a) which aspects of parent and preadolescent religiosity (i.e., church attendance, private religious activities, and intrinsic religiosity) accounted for the most variance in preadolescent aggression and (b) the potential moderating role of socioeconomic status. Participants were 157 African American preadolescents (110 males, 47 females) with elevated levels of aggression and their primary caregivers. Results indicated that higher levels of parent church attendance and preadolescent intrinsic religiosity predicted lower preadolescent aggression. The relation between preadolescent private religious activities and aggression was moderated by socioeconomic status. Implications for prevention and intervention among African American preadolescents with elevated levels of aggression are discussed.

Keywords

religiosity aggression preadolescent parent spirituality

Physical aggression refers to verbal or physical behaviors that may be threatening or cause harm to others or objects (Lochman, Whidby, & Fitzgerald, 2000). Aggression is one of the most stable behaviors during childhood and is associated with negative developmental outcomes into adolescence such as substance use, conduct problems, and serious disruptive behaviors (Tolan, Gorman-Smith, & Loeber, 2000). The public costs (e.g., general health, inpatient and outpatient mental health, juvenile justice, and education) associated with serious conduct problems over a 7-year period are about $70,000 higher than the costs for youth who do not display these serious behaviors (Foster & Jones, 2005). Due to the additional social difficulties that African American youth face including disproportionately high rates of poverty (Warf, Clark, Herz, & Rabinovitz, 2009) and racial discrimination (Wong, Eccles, & Sameroff, 2003), African American preadolescents with elevated levels of aggression are arguably at an increased risk for negative outcomes in adolescence.

A significant portion of the literature on African American youth has focused on risk factors with a recent emphasis on those youth who are resilient despite these risks. Resilience is a construct that captures the ability of individuals to overcome and remain competent despite being exposed to risk factors (Fraser & Richman, 1999). Another construct associated with positive outcomes is a promotive factor, which refers to the main effect of positive constructs on outcomes (Loeber, Pardini, Stouthamer-Loeber, & Raine, 2007).

Religiosity

Religiosity and spirituality are separate yet related constructs that are strengths among African Americans (Lambert et al., 2005) and, therefore, are important cultural factors when exploring resiliency among African American youth. In terms of a contextual variable, parental religiosity is associated with fewer externalizing problems among African American youth (Brody, Stoneman, & Flor, 1996). Since previous research has demonstrated a direct effect of religiosity on problem behaviors, religiosity will be conceptualized as a promotive factor (i.e., promoting lower levels of aggression) in the current study.

Socioeconomic Status

To better understand the role of religiosity among African American youth especially those with elevated levels of aggression, there must be an appreciation for the variation in youths’ personal characteristics, including socioeconomic status (SES). There is some indication that religious service attendance is more protective in terms of academic progress within more impoverished neighborhoods (Regnerus & Elder, 2003). Schieman, Pudrovska, Pearlin, and Ellison (2006) found that, for low-SES African Americans, perceived divine control was significantly inversely associated with psychological distress. These findings tentatively suggest that SES may impact the relation between religiosity and certain outcomes; however, there has not been a study examining aggression as one of these outcomes especially among African American preadolescents displaying aggression.

Purpose of the Present Study

Since religiosity is most commonly measured using one indicator (either church attendance or importance of religion in one’s life; Johnson, De Li, Larson, & McCullough, 2000), one aim of this study is to examine more than one dimension of religiosity as contributors to resiliency. To date, there has not been an empirical investigation of intrinsic religiosity among preadolescents; however, some researchers have explored aspects of religiosity other than church attendance. Specifically, Bamford and Lagattuta (2010) found that children as young as 8 years old understand prayer as communication with God and a way of coping with negative emotions. Furthermore, even though parents highly influence their children’s beliefs in general, the religious beliefs of parents and children are not always consistent (Boyatzis, 2005) and could influence behavioral outcomes differently. Therefore, parent and preadolescent religiosity were examined separately.

The current study investigated the degree to which parent and preadolescent religiosity serve as promotive factors when predicting aggression among African American preadolescents with moderate to high aggression. Furthermore, the study examined the degree to which SES moderated the relation between religiosity and aggression. Based on the research to date, we expect to find that, for lower SES participants, preadolescent and parent religiosity will be associated with less preadolescent aggression. Overall, this study will add to the religiosity literature by (a) examining more than one dimension of religiosity for both parents and preadolescents, (b) using a sample of preadolescents displaying moderate to high aggression, and (c) examining the role of SES.

Method

Participants

The participants were a part of a larger longitudinal prevention/intervention study funded by the National Institute for Drug Abuse and had not received intervention when the data were collected for this study. A six-item teacher-rating form of aggression (e.g., “when teased or threatened, he/she gets angry easily and strikes back”) was used to identify students with moderate to high aggression (Dodge & Coie, 1987). Teachers were asked to rate all the children in their 3rd grade classes and inclusion was determined by selecting those in the top 30%. Similar cut-off determination systems have been used in previous projects (Lochman & Wells, 2003) and allow for moderate to high aggression and for identification of aggressive children relative to the behavioral norms for their peer group. Furthermore, early screening procedures have predictive utility for emerging behavioral problems at later ages (Hill, Lochman, Coie, & Greenberg, 2004). Participants in the current study were African Americans between the ages of 7.8 and 12.3 years (mean = 10.7 years) and had recently completed fourth and fifth grades. Parents were contacted to participate in the data collection portion (4-month period) of the larger prevention/intervention study. The study had 157 parent–preadolescent dyads (primarily mothers) with 110 male preadolescents.

Procedure

Institutional review board approval was obtained for this study. Local public schools were selected to represent children from urban and suburban neighborhoods. Parent participants were given consent forms while children were given assent forms with a description of the study and an opportunity to ask questions regarding the nature of the study. The preadolescent received $15.00 in cash and the parent received $60.00 in cash on completion of the interview.

Measures

Religiosity was assessed using the Duke Religion Index (DRI; Koenig, Parkerson, & Meador, 1997). The DRI measures organizational (e.g., frequency of religious service attendance), nonorganizational (e.g., frequency of private religious activities, such as prayer, meditation, and Bible study), and intrinsic religiosity (e.g., experiencing the presence of the Divine and religion playing an important role in one’s life). Concurrent validity was found with the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire and the organizational, nonorganizational, and intrinsic religiosity subscales of the DRI (rs = −.71 to −.85; Plante, Yancey, Sherman, Guertin, & Pardini, 1999). There have been no published studies using this measure with younger adolescents. Therefore, the DRI has no reported validity with African American preadolescents. However, several studies have used frequency of religious service attendance (Steinmann & Zimmerman, 2004), engagement in private religious activities, and beliefs and interactions with the transcendent (e.g., God; Pearce, Jones, Schwab-Stone, & Ruchkin, 2003; mean age = 12.5 years) to investigate religiosity among African American youth, which provides some validity for their use in the current study at the item level. In this study, the Cronbach alphas for intrinsic religiosity were .71 and .62 for parents and preadolescents, respectively. A potential explanation for the lower alpha for preadolescents is that the items used to measure intrinsic religiosity do not fully capture how preadolescents experience God and the importance of religion in their lives.

Aggression (e.g., “breaks other children’s things”) was assessed using the 14-item aggression subscale of the Behavior Assessment System for Children Parenting Rating Scale (BASC; Reynolds & Kamphaus, 1992). The coefficient alpha reliability for the aggression scale in the current study is .83. The norms for the BASC are based on a nationally representative sample of children including a representative number of African American youth.

SES was measured using a combination of the head of the household’s occupation (e.g., laborer to major professional), education level, and household annual income. Each variable was converted into a standardized z-score and combined to create one variable to measure SES. These variables and other demographic information (e.g., gender and age) were obtained from a form administered to the parents.

Results

Preliminary analyses indicated that parent organizational religiosity was significantly positively correlated with preadolescent organizational religiosity (r = .23, p < .01) and inversely correlated with aggression (r = −.25, p < .01). Preadolescent intrinsic religiosity was significantly inversely correlated with aggression (r = −.16, p < .05).

Hierarchical Regression Analyses Using Domains of Religiosity and SES

Hierarchical regression analyses were used to determine whether preadolescent religiosity accounted for variance significantly beyond that of parent religiosity and whether SES interaction terms accounted for variance beyond both parent and preadolescent religiosity. Since the few empirical studies that have found an association between religiosity and behavioral outcomes among African American preadolescents have used parental religiosity (Brody et al., 1996), the three parent religiosity variables were entered in the first block, followed by the three preadolescent religiosity variables, and SES, and the six interaction terms were entered in the third and last block. A post hoc power analysis for multiple regression (first block) and hierarchical multiple regression (second and third blocks) were used to determine the observed statistical power for each block. The post hoc power for regression uses probability level, number of predictors, R², and the sample size in its calculation. The post hoc power for hierarchical multiple regression uses effect size of the Set B, number of predictors in Sets A and B, probability level, and sample size in its calculation. The power statistics for Blocks 2 and 3 represent the power for the addition of variables in Set B to the overall model (Cohen, Cohen, West, & Aiken, 2003).

Research Question 1

In the first block, containing parent religiosity variables only, parent organizational religiosity (β = −.20, p < .05) was most predictive of aggression. The effect size for the first block was f² = .09 while the post hoc power = .78. When preadolescent religiosity variables were added to the model in Block 2, parent organizational religiosity remained the most predictive of aggression (β = −.20, p < .05) followed by preadolescent intrinsic religiosity (β = −.16, p < .05) and preadolescent nonorganizational religiosity (β = .17, p < .05). The effect size for the second block was f² = .05 while the post hoc power for the addition of the preadolescent religiosity variables was .48. When the simple correlations are examined there is no indication of a significant relation, in either direction, between preadolescent nonorganizational religiosity and preadolescent aggression. Since the correlation between preadolescent nonorganizational religiosity (CNR) and preadolescent organizational religiosity (r = .34, p < .001) is substantially higher than the correlation between CNR and preadolescent aggression, these circumstances likely created a suppression effect. The high correlation between the two independent variables and the low correlation between CNR and the dependent variable likely caused the coefficient for CNR to increase and be in the opposite direction (Cohen et al., 2003).

Research Question 2

After entering the third block, the overall model was significant, F(13, 146) = 2.37, p < .01, but none of the individual parameters were significant. The final model (see Table 1), after backward elimination analyses, included all six religiosity main effect terms, SES, the interaction between SES and preadolescent nonorganizational religiosity (SES * CNR), and the interaction between SES and parent organizational religiosity (SES * POR). The effect size for the third block after backward elimination was f² = .04 while the post hoc power was .32. The individual parameter for SES * CNR was significant (β = −.19, p < .05). The results of a follow-up analysis regarding the nature of the interaction between SES and CNR revealed that higher levels of preadolescent private religious activities are associated with more aggression for lower SES participants (see Figure 1). For lower SES participants, the mean level of aggression for preadolescents reporting lower and higher levels of nonorganizational religiosity is 8.16 and 10.11, respectively. For higher SES participants, the mean level of aggression for preadolescents reporting lower and higher levels nonorganizational religiosity is 9.58 and 9.02, respectively.

Table 1.

Final Model: Hierarchical Regression Analyses Predicting Preadolescent Aggression From Religiosity, SES, and SES Interactions

	β (SE)
Variable	Block 1	Block 2	Block 3
Parent organizational religiosity	−.25 (.43)**	−.25 (.44)**	−.23 (.44)*
Parent nonorganizational religiosity	.03 (.31)	.05 (.30)	.04 (.30)
Parent intrinsic religiosity	−.09 (.92)	−.11 (.91)	−.11 (.94)
Preadolescent organization religiosity		−.03 (.33)	−.02 (.33)
Preadolescent nonorganizational religiosity		.18 (.29)*	.16 (.29)
Preadolescent intrinsic religiosity		−.16 (.59)*	−.15 (.58)
SES			.05 (.13)
SES * parent organizational religiosity			.11 (.10)
SES * preadolescent nonorganizational religiosity			−.19 (.07)*
Adjusted R²/ΔR²	.07/.09**	.10/.05^†	.11/.04
F/ΔF	4.50/4.50	3.57**/2.50^†	3.08**/1.94

Note: SES = socioeconomic status; β = standardized beta coefficient; SE = standard error.

p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001. ^†p <. 10.

Figure 1.

Illustration of the moderating effect of socioeconomic status (SES) between preadolescent nonorganizational religiosity (CNR) and aggression

Discussion

Parental Religiosity and Preadolescent Aggression

The current study found that, within a sample of African American preadolescents with moderate to high aggression, parent religious service attendance was most associated with lower levels of preadolescent aggression across all domains of parent religiosity and may contribute to resiliency within this group. These findings are consistent with Brody et al.’s (1996) research concluding that parental religiosity was related to less externalizing problems among African American preadolescents. One explanation is that parental religiosity promotes closer bonds between youth and family/school, which decreases the likelihood that they will engage in delinquent behavior.

Preadolescent Religiosity and Preadolescent Aggression

The current study preliminarily found that preadolescent intrinsic religiosity was the dimension of preadolescent religiosity that was modestly associated with lower levels of aggression. Since the religiosity subscales were minimally reliable with limited stability, comparative statements regarding domains of preadolescent religiosity cannot be made. These results tentatively imply that the more African American preadolescents who display aggression experience a personal relationship with the Divine and endorse these beliefs as being important in their lives, the less likely they are to display aggression. This is consistent with previous findings that religiosity is related to fewer conduct problems over time (Pearce et al., 2003). The results of the current study tentatively suggest that, even among an aggressive sample of youth in middle childhood, intrinsic religiosity affects aggression. The modest relation found between preadolescent intrinsic religiosity and aggression can be explained by previous research arguing that religion contributes to moral order, learned competencies such as leadership skills, and social and organizational ties (Smith, 2003).

Socioeconomic Status

The current study further found that, for the lower SES subsample, higher levels of involvement in preadolescent non-organizational religiosity (i.e., prayer, mediation, and Bible study) are related to higher levels of aggression. Of note, approximately 70% of this sample reported earning less than $20,000 per year. Therefore, the lower SES participants likely represent quite impoverished families. Since this study was cross-sectional, causality could not be determined. A potential explanation for this significant, but modest finding is reverse causation. In other words, those preadolescents from the lower SES subsample, may be more likely to pray or read the Bible to help decrease their aggressive behaviors. This tentative finding adds to the religiosity literature by suggesting that the relation between prayer/Bible study and aggression is more relevant for lower SES samples of African American preadolescents and can be extended to those displaying moderate to high aggression.

Limitations and Future Research

The internal consistency of intrinsic religiosity was lower for preadolescents than for their parents, which made this subscale less reliable and the findings more exploratory and preliminary. The levels of aggression ranged from moderate to high, which is fairly restricted and limits generalizability to preadolescents with high levels of aggression but is helpful for prevention/intervention implications. One item was used to measure both organizational and nonorganizational religiosity, which limits the stability and meaningfulness of these subscales. There are no validated measures of intrinsic religiosity for preadolescents and the measure used in this study likely did not fully capture this construct for preadolescents. Statistically, there is limited power given the small sample size and the number of predictors could have increased the risk for Type I error, which further contributes to the preliminary nature of the findings. Therefore, subsequent studies should examine these variables longitudinally among a larger sample and focus on ways to more accurately and comprehensively measure religiosity (especially intrinsic forms) among preadolescents. Subsequent studies could also explore gender differences, which could not be adequately investigated in the current study due to the severely unbalanced sample sizes regarding gender that potentially compromised the ability to detect gender differences. The current study used multiple informants to carefully investigate the individual differences among preadolescents screened for prevention/intervention programs; however, future research should explore the relations in the current study among a broader community sample. Since the form of aggression used in the current study is more common in males, future research could also examine the role of religiosity in other forms of aggression such as relational aggression, which is more common in females (Kistner et al., 2010).

Implications for Prevention/Intervention

The findings from the current study tentatively suggest that parent religious service attendance and preadolescent intrinsic religiosity have implications for prevention/intervention strategies among African American preadolescents with elevated levels of aggression. Therefore, professionals who work with African American preadolescents who display aggression and their families could include religion in their understanding of these families and incorporate the family’s beliefs in treatment as a way of building on strengths of the family. Specifically, clinicians could inquire about the role of religiosity in the lives of African American preadolescents with elevated levels of aggression and of their families. This could include an assessment of specific ways that parental religious service attendance and the preadolescent’s personal religious experiences with God and his or her beliefs about the importance of religion can be integrated as a coping mechanism or therapeutic strategy.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The completion of this study has been supported by a grant from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (R01DA016135) given to the second author.

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