Open access
THE ROLE OF RELIGION IN THE LIFE OF SCHOOL-AGE YOUTH IN VIEW OF DYSFUNCTIONAL BEHAVIOR
Arkadiusz D. LEŚNIAK-MOCZUK1, Eugeniusz MOCZUK2
Research on religion
Publication language: English
Journal article
Transformations No. 4 (115) 2022, Publication date: 28 December 2022
Keywords: youth, religiosity, religious morality, demoralization, dysfunctional behavior
Abstract In the postmodern society, the impact of religious faith on the process of socialization among young people has been diminishing. The youth that has been brought up with the rhetoric of independence, despite the pursuit for individuality, ought to remain under indirect influence of institutions, legal norms and cultural codes. The article presents a research objective which, based on a representative research sample, allows determining the relationship between school-age youth’s religiosity and their dysfunctional behaviors.The results analyzed in the article derive from the empirical research carried out as part of the third edition of the International Self-Report Delinquency Study (ISRD-3) conducted in 2017-2018 by Northeastern University College of SocialSciences and Humanities (USA) in 35 countries worldwide. According to the study assumptions, an online survey was conducted in two Polish cities, on a sample of 2 179 students representing 6th grade of elementary school as well as 1st and 2nd grades of junior high school. The research carried out shows that the juvenile respondents, who describe themselves as Catholics and Orthodox Christians, engaged in dysfunctional behavior much less frequently than those of other religions and non-believers/atheists. The greater the role and significance of religiosity in the respondents' everyday lives, the less prone to dysfunctional behavior and to the use of psychoactive substances they are, the greater their courage to admit to possible drug addiction, the lower the frequency of relations with persons of dysfunctional background and the less frequent encounters with the Police. The examined relationship between the students' religiosity and their lower susceptibility to demoralization prove the positive impact of faith on the young generation’s social life. Persons who are indifferent to religious faith may tend to be insensitive to the suffering of others, be characterized by selfishness and insensitivity, whereas by excessive harassment and aversion may generate social problems
Radom University of Technology and Humanities Kazimierz Pulaski, Poland
ORCID: 0000-0002-5447-6966
E-mail: ad.lesniak@gmail.com
Rzeszow University of Technology, Poland
ORCID: 0000-0002-5447-6966
E-mail: e.moczuk@prz.edu.pl