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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

religious influence, adolescents, health, helping behaviors

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

Psychology

Abstract

For decades, research has shown religious involvement and religious belief to predict positive outcomes for adolescents and adults, including better physical and mental health, fewer risk-taking behaviors, and greater involvement in moral or pro-social and helping behaviors (Hood, Hill, & Spilka, 2009). However, the current body of research literature is unclear about how individuals perceive religion to influence their lives. Research has not shown if people identify the same positive outcomes from their religiousness that scholars do. This is important to consider because people may perceive outcomes that are unrecognized by scholars. These additional outcomes may have a significant impact on the lives of individuals, and thus they deserve to be identified and studied. Additionally, if people do identify the same positive outcomes as scholars, these perceptions would help to verify the accuracy of the scholars’ research. Thus, this study on people’s perceptions of religious influence was designed to address two questions: How do people perceive that religion influences their lives? Do these outcomes match the ones identified by scholars of religiousness?

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